Agenda item

The following Notice of Motion has been received from Councillor R.C. Bithell:-

“Given the continuing problem being experienced by Flintshire residents with dog fouling and litter, this Council calls upon Officers to consider the employment of an enforcement company to enforce our regulations regarding these issues”.

Given the continuing problem being experienced by Flintshire residents with dog fouling and litter, this Council calls upon Officers to consider the employment of an enforcement company to enforce our regulations regarding these issues.

The following Notice of motion had been received from Councillor R.C. Bithell:-

“Given the continuing problem being experienced by Flintshire residents with dog fouling and litter, this Council calls upon Officers to consider the employment of an enforcement company to enforce our regulations regarding these issues”.

            In speaking to his motion, Councillor Bithell said that all Members received frequent complaints of dog fouling and litter across Flintshire and said that despite the improvements made to reduce dog fouling and littering further improvements were needed.  He acknowledged that tackling dog fouling and littering was a difficult task and said that his notice of motion would enable officers to make enquiries on employing an enforcement company to enforce the Council’s regulations and present a report on their findings to the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee in due course. 

            Councillor J.B. Attridge, Cabinet Member for Environment in responding to the notice of motion reported that the Council had looked at the operation of the company recently highlighted on a TV programme and in the process had contacted a number of authorities who had used them and had had informal discussions with the company itself.  The majority of their work was focused around the issue of Fixed Penalty Notices for littering which they had been doing very successfully in a number of urban areas.  They had recently had enquiries on the enforcement of dog fouling, but recognised the difficulty of issuing tickets in this respect.

In Blaenau Gwent they had two contracts – one for litter which was based on a percentage of the income derived from issuing a Fixed Penalty Notice and one on an hourly rate for enforcing against dog fouling.  They would not consider entering into a contract for dog fouling based on a percentage of the Fixed Penalty Notice income, due to the difficulty involved in issuing Fixed Penalty Notices.  The company would consider a contract for dog fouling enforcement but only on an hourly rate basis.

The company were shortly starting work on a 12 month pilot contract with Denbighshire and Conwy which would cover both dog fouling and litter.  The Councils intended to review all the comments before proceeding further with our Enforcement Team and would closely monitor how this pilot progressed before making recommendations to Members on whether it was right for the Council to adopt such an approach in the future.

            Councillor N.R. Steele-Mortimer spoke in support of the motion and said that the matter had been a concern for Members for a number of years.  He questioned why this matter had been brought to the County Council by a Cabinet Member as this could have been considered by the Cabinet.  He gave notice that he would be requesting a recorded vote.  In responding to his comments, Councillor A.P. Shotton, Leader of the Council supported the notice of motion being submitted to County Council as the matter affected all residents of Flintshire. 

            Councillor H.D. Hutchinson spoke in support of the motion and reported that during his time as Executive Member for Public Protection and Leisure he had been pro-active in addressing the matter of dog fouling and littering and that many improvements had been made.  Councillor P.G. Heesom paid tribute to the work undertaken by Councillor Hutchinson and asked that Councillor Steele-Mortimer to withdraw his notice of a recorded vote as the motion was in the best interests of all residents of Flintshire.

            Councillor W.O. Thomas raised concern around the difficulty of enforcing the Council’s regulations on dog fouling and littering as 80% of Flintshire was rural and suggested that members of the public should be allowed to report instances of dog fouling and littering.  Councillor C.A. Ellis spoke in support of the motion but raised concern with the suggestion of members of the public taking matters into their own hands when tackling dog fouling.

            Councillor M.J. Peers spoke in support of the motion.  He reported that the monitoring of the performance of the Enforcement Team sat within the remit of the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee and questioned whether they were achieving what was expected of them.  He said that the motion would give the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee the opportunity to evaluate the Council’s own Enforcement Team and report back to County Council in due course.  Councillor H.J. McGuill also spoke in support of the motion and the Council’s Enforcement Team who she had found to be very helpful.

            In summing up, Councillor Bithell said that he had submitted a question to County Council 12 months ago asking for details on how many fines had been imposed and the answer given had been very few.  He explained that he had submitted the notice of motion to County Council as the matter concerned all Members.  He commented on the good work of the Enforcement Team but said that there was not enough staff to tackle the issue across Flintshire and asked all Members to support the motion.

            Councillor Steele-Mortimer requested a record vote but not enough Members stood in support of this.    

RESOLVED:

Given the continuing problem being experienced by Flintshire residents with dog fouling and litter, this Council calls upon Officers to consider the employment of an enforcement company to enforce our regulations regarding these issues.