Chichester District Council
Issue

Issue - meetings

Litter and Fly Tip Action Plan 2017-2019

Meeting: 05/09/2017 - Cabinet (Item 408)

408 Litter and Fly Tip Action Plan 2017-2019 pdf icon PDF 82 KB

The Cabinet is requested to consider the agenda report and to make the following resolution namely that:

 

1)          The Litter and Fly Tip Action Plan 2017-2019 attached as Appendix 1 to this report be approved and authority to make minor amendments to the Action Plan be delegated to the CCS Service Manager following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Contract Services.

2)          The intention of the Chief Executive to report to full Council her use of her s.10 (2) constitutional delegation to discharge certain litter enforcement functions to the East Hampshire District Council under powers granted to the authority under s.101 of the Local Government Act 1997 be noted.

3)          Expenditure of £60,000 be approved, funded from reserves, to enable the appointment of one fte Project Officer for two years to undertake communication initiatives and support enforcement work relating to fly tipping.

4)          Expenditure of £26,000 be approved, funded from reserves, to provide resources to support publicity campaigns (£6,000) and the refurbishment and re-signing of a proportion of litter and dog bins (£20,000).

Additional documents:

Decision:

RESOLVED

 

(1)  That the Litter and Fly Tip Action Plan 2017-2019 appended to the agenda report be approved and that authority to make minor amendments to the Action Plan be delegated to the CCS Service Manager following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Contract Services.

 

(2)  That the intention of the Chief Executive be noted to report to the Council meeting her use of the power to discharge functions set out in para 10.02 (a) in Part 2 of Chichester District Council’s Constitution namely to delegate the discharge of certain litter enforcement functions to the East Hampshire District Council under powers granted to Chichester District Council under section 101 of the Local Government Act 1997.

 

(3)  That £60,000 funded from reserves be approved to enable the appointment of one full-time equivalent Project Officer for two years to undertake communication initiatives and support enforcement work relating to fly-tipping.

 

(4)  That expenditure of £26,000 funded from reserves be approved to provide resources to support publicity campaigns (£6,000) and the refurbishment and re-signing of a proportion of litter and dog bins (£20,000).

 

(5)  That the resources available for this project be reviewed as part of the forthcoming budget process.

 

Minutes:

The Cabinet received and considered the agenda report and its two appendices in the agenda supplement (copies attached to the official minutes).

 

The report was presented by Mr Barrow.

 

Mrs Stevens and Mrs Huggett were in attendance for this item.

 

Mr Barrow explained that litter, fly tipping and dog fouling were the scourge of the beautiful Chichester District and he believed residents expected CDC to do something about it. Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 CDC was a principal litter authority and had a duty to keep relevant land in the open air to which the public had access clear of litter and debris. In April 2017 the government produced a Litter Strategy for England, which

encouraged action from local authorities and other organisations to improve the environment. CDC already spent so much dealing with cleaning the streets (annual budget £1,030,000); highway litter picking (complex and costly due to traffic management requirements); the huge increase in the number of fly tips in Chichester District (988 in 2016-2017 compared with 618 in 2015-2016) at a removal cost of £74,300 (including £21,000 for hazardous waste fly tips).

 

He had been working with a member/officer group to produce a robust action plan to deal with the problem, which consisted of four main parts: (1) a comprehensive PR campaign to prick the public conscience and improve the public’s awareness and encourage behavioural change by the minority who caused these problems; (2) enforcement: CDC was proposing to (a) join in an enforcement campaign with East Hampshire District Council to put enforcement officers on the streets, towns, parks and beaches, equipped with body-worn cameras and authorised to issue culprits with fixed penalty notices: £80 for litter and £100 for dog fouling (reduced if paid within 14 days) - other neighbouring authorities were already part of the trial with considerable success and participation would be at no cost to CDC and (b) work with West Sussex County Council on a CCTV trial aimed at fly-tippers; (3) working with the community (and collaborating with other stakeholders), encouraging and supporting community efforts, providing guidance, equipment, PR support and recognising significant achievements; and

(4) review CDC’s infrastructure: many of its 700 plus litter bins and 400 dog waste bins needed replacing with updated signage.

 

In addition to the four recommendations in the agenda report, he proposed a fifth recommendation namely that the resources available for this project be reviewed as part of the forthcoming budget process. This proposal was seconded by Mr Connor.

 

Mrs Stevens did not add to the presentation by Mr Barrow. Mrs Huggett pointed out that the National Litter Strategy had commenced an innovation fund to which CDC’s project team could submit a bid if it was unsuccessful in receiving current funding.  

 

The Cabinet commended the proposed action plan.

 

Mr Barrow, Mrs Stevens and Mr Huggett responded to questions from the Cabinet and Mr R E Plowman (Chichester West ward member) who was present as an observer about who were ordinarily responsible for fly-tipping (jobbing builders and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 408


 

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