Agenda item

As detailed in the recommendations.

Councillor Attridge introduced the report on the Work of the Deeside Environmental Task Group which was established following complaints received at the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee in October 2015 on high levels of littering and fly tipping between the North Wales Coast railway line and the B5129. 

            The report provided details of actions undertaken by the Task Group and the necessary next steps in the process to maintain and enhance the work already undertaken in the area.

            The project commenced with an extensive clean-up of the area and was followed by regular daily patrols.  Each event of littering or fly tipping was investigated and if any evidence was found a warning letter was sent to the resident which clearly explained the duty of the resident to manage their waste and to present their waste collections on the correct day of the week at an agreed collection point.  Approximately one hundred such letters were delivered during the period of the project.

            The quality of the environment had vastly improved in the area during the period of the project however, that was at a cost which was unsustainable and the Council needed to consider enforcement action against residents who continued to ignore the advice provided and continued to dispose of their waste in an inconsiderate manner.

            It was proposed that enforcement actions would take the following forms:

1.    Fly tipping, or black bags placed at collection points or any other area outside of the waste collection day – Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) served for littering, if evidence linking the property to the litter could be found in the waste.  Those powers were already vested in the Council under the following section of the Environmental Protection Act 1990:

·         Section 87: Offence of leaving litter

·         Section 88: FPN for leaving litter

2.    Presenting waste containers on the incorrect day or failure to bring in the container after collection had taken place.  Those powers were already vested in the Council under the following section of the Environmental Protection Act 1990:

·         Section 46: Receptacles for household waste

The service would continue to monitor the area and if the programme proved to be successful the process should be rolled out to other areas of the County experiencing similar problems.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the work carried out by the Deeside Environmental Task Group be noted;

(b)       That the proposed enforcement action against those residents presenting their waste containers outside of their allocated collection day be approved;

(c)        That the proposed enforcement action against anyone evidenced to have caused littering in the area by placing their domestic waste material on the street outside of their allocated collection day be approved;

(d)       That the Chief Officer (Streetscene and Transportation), after consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environment, be provided with delegated authority to extend the arrangements to other areas of the Council which are experiencing similar problems; and

(e)       That a further report, detailing the progress and impact of the approved enforcement actions be submitted to Cabinet 6 months after implementation.