Agenda item

The report of the Director – Neighbourhoods is attached.

The Service Manager – Public Protection presented the report of the Director – Neighbourhoods, which provided an update on the Council’s approach to environmental crime enforcement.

Mr John Dunne and Mr Daniel Edwards from WISE (Waste Investigations Support and Enforcement) attended the meeting, to assist with the consideration of this item.

The Service Manager – Public Protection and Mr Dunne delivered a presentation reviewing the Council’s partnership with WISE, and how WISE operated, which provided details on the following issues, and members of the Group were invited to make comments and observations on the presentation and report:

·        Background and examples of fly tipping in the Borough.

·        Fly tipping data.

·        The Council’s enforcement approach.

·        WISE – history and service overview.

·        Fixed penalty levels.

·        Partnership management.

·        WISE – six month pilot - background and aims.

·        How the enforcement service works.

·        Details of enforcement actions.

·        Fixed penalties and notices by wards and towns/villages.

·        FPN (Fixed Penalty Notice) offenders outside of the Borough and offence locations.

·        FPN processes.

·        Cost of the service.

·        Ad-hoc weekend parks patrols.

·        Examples of positive media.

The Director – Neighbourhoods advised that following a discussion with the Cabinet Portfolio Holder, Councillor Inglis, who was delighted with how the trial had progressed and given the positive outcomes and behaviour change that had been seen, it was proposed to extend the trial for a further 12 months.

The Chairman thanked the Service Manager – Public Protection and Mr Dunne for the excellent presentation and suggested that the Group agree that the presentation, together with WISE terms of reference be circulated to all Councillors, reminding them of the important role that they played as community leaders in spreading the message about incident reporting via the Council’s website.

All members of the Group thanked the Service Manager – Public Protection and Mr Dunne for the informative presentation, which was extremely positive, and looked forward to the trial being extended.

Councillor Healy asked what publicity was being given to the trial and how were areas being identified, was it through requests by Councillors, parish and town councils or simply due to the number of calls logged about a particular incident.

Mr Dunne advised that the pilot itself was focussed on complaints regarding fly tipping, dog fouling and littering, and once a complaint had been received, WISE officers had 24 hours to investigate that complaint.  Whilst in one particular area, officers would also undertake proactive patrolling, and during the six month trial, WISE had initially been given a ‘hot spot’ list from Environmental Health, which it had now added to, through its own work and investigations.

In answer to a question regarding enforcement against littering, Mr Dune confirmed that in order to take any action, a person had to be visibly observed by an officer in the act of littering, and in those cases the standard operating procedures would be followed on issuing a Fixed penalty Notice (FPN).

Councillor Healy concluded by asking if it would be possible for Councillors to be updated on a monthly basis with the numbers of FPNs issued and resulting fines paid.  Mr Dunne clarified that in layman’s terms an FPN was a fine, as once an FPN had been issued, a person had to pay the fine, or they would be prosecuted.  In respect of statistics, all reporting systems were in real time, and that information could be broken down into specific areas and supplied to Councillors if they requested it through Environmental Health.

Councillor Richard Mallender referred to fly tipping on public and private land and sought clarification on how action could be taken on those two different types of land.  Mr Dunne confirmed that in respect of enforcement, WISE would investigate all instances of fly tipping, and if evidence could be found, a FPN would be issued; however, there was an exemption in the legislation, for a landowner to be able to deposit waste on their property, or give permission to someone else to do so.  With respect to cleansing, the Group was advised that if it was public land, WISE would investigate and contact Streetwise to remove it; however, if it was private land, it would be referred to Environmental Health for further investigation.  The Director – Neighbourhoods advised that cases of waste storage on private land would also be referred to the County Council for investigation, as potentially those sites might require planning permission.

Councillor Jones referred to instances of anti-social behaviour (ASB) and littering associated with young people and alcohol at Sharphill Woods and asked who residents could report that to.

The Chairman reiterated the concerns regarding littering at Sharphill Woods, which was an eyesore, and should be enforced against, and the volunteers who worked tirelessly to remove the litter were thanked for their efforts. 

The Service Manager – Public Protection reminded the Group that in the first instance the Police were responsible for dealing with ASB.  Mr Dunne confirmed that WISE could work outside normal hours to deal with ASB and littering and would be happy to look at the issues in Sharphill Woods. 

In response, the Chairman suggested that it would be helpful to contact all local volunteer groups, to ensure that they had the same reporting information.

Councillor Jones stated that he was aware of people using the Council’s website to report street cleaning issues to Streetwise and asked if that reporting mechanism was linked to WISE.  Mr Dunne advised that reports made online were logged on the Council’s Citrix system, and immediately forwarded to WISE, to be investigated within 24 hours.  Once investigated, if necessary, Streetwise would be asked to take action to clear a site. 

Councillor Jones concluded by asking if taking court action was complicated and costly and if the courts provided costs to the Council and would that be apparent to the person issued with the notice.  Mr Dunne confirmed that when cases were referred to court, they were dealt with under a single justice procedure.  Due to Covid, courts had been extremely busy, which had led to a backlog in environmental crime cases being considered; however, that backlog was now easing.  It was noted that a court would award costs back to the Council.

Councillor Rex Walker reflected on the excellent work already achieved, and in looking to the challenges that lay head over the next 12 months, questioned how a balance could be struck between taking action against more easily detectable environmental crime, such as littering, and the more complex cases, including fly-tipping, which were more time consuming and costly.  Mr Dunne stated that the costs and margins were regularly reviewed, and in respect of enforcement, the Group was reminded that WISE investigated fly-tipping and would only deal with littering when there were no fly tipping cases to investigate.  However, going forward, looking at lessons learnt, it would be possible to further refine the service over the next 12 months.

The Director – Neighbourhoods confirmed that WISE had responded and listened to feedback regarding how Rushcliffe wanted the pilot to work, including a focus on more serious environmental crime, specifically fly tipping.  The Group was advised that WISE had also undertaken some business compliance work, which had proved extremely valuable and cost effective to the Council.

In answer to a question regarding ways to increase the detection of fly tipping, the Service Manager – Public Protection advised that the quality of evidence was paramount, and in many cases, it was difficult to gather.  The Council could accept evidence from CCTV and dashcam footage and having witness statements was extremely important to increase detection rates.  Mr Dunne reiterated the comments made and advised that currently a number of investigations were ongoing, and it was envisaged that next year all of those cases would result in penalties, which would increase the detection rates.

The Chairman noted that the pilot had been agreed to try to solve the problem of fly tipping, rather than to generate income.  The Group was reminded that given the rural nature of the Borough, involvement from parish and town councils was important to increase reporting and detection rates.

Councillor Bansal asked if any data analysis was being undertaken on the information being received, and if there was any capability to predict where future events might occur.  Mr Dunne advised that fly tipping occurred randomly, and although data was collected it would be extremely difficult to predict future events.  The Director – Neighbourhoods confirmed that the mapping undertaken had identified a number of ‘hotspots’ throughout the Borough, and the covert CCTV cameras were moved to those ‘hotspots’ and that had proved very successful in the past.   

In answer to a question regarding costs to the Council’s Legal Services team, the Service Manager – Public Protection agreed that this was an issue, and given that the trial was to be extended, how to sustain in house costs would have to be addressed going forward.  Mr Dunne advised that it was hoped that once the legal cases were being regularly processed, the Council would receive enough money from the courts to offset the legal costs.

Councillor Dickman requested clarification regarding the rules on households leaving scrap metal, including old electrical goods on their properties to be collected by anyone passing by.  Mr Dunne confirmed that there was an exemption in the legislation, which allowed waste to be deposited for short periods.  It was noted that WISE would investigate all cases of waste on a public highway, and the outcome of that investigation would depend on the responses received, and that was why there was a robust representation system in place, to ensure that any decisions could be monitored and reviewed.

The Chairman stated that it was important that residents were reminded that they should use one of the Council’s approved providers to remove scrap metal, rather than to leave it outside a property and just expect someone to take it away.

The Chairman thanked Mr Dunne for his comments and reiterated the importance of Councillors using the correct reporting function on the Council’s website and suggested that it would be helpful to raise awareness through Councillors’ Connection and for Councillors to remind parish and town councils to do the same.  The Chairman also stated the importance of ensuring that local businesses were aware of the procedures being enforced to protect the environment, and their responsibilities, in particular after Covid, when many were opening up again.

RESOLVED

a)        that the WISE: Environmental Crime Enforcement Update and presentation be noted;

b)        that the presentation and WISE terms of reference be circulated to all Councillors; and

c)         that a reminder of the importance of reporting environmental crime, together with details of the reporting procedures, be included in Councillors’ Connections.