Agenda item

David Beaver (Head of Waste Management) and Hannah Allard (Waste Business Development) were in attendance for this item.

1.    Miss Carey (Cabinet Member for Environment) introduced the report which provided an update on the actions that had been undertaken since July 2019 and the planned actions over the coming months. Miss Carey informed the Committee that Kent County Council (KCC) had committed £250,000 to reduce the level of fly tipping in Kent and would continue to build on its close working relationship with the district and borough councils and other partners through the Kent Resource Partnership (KRP) in order to tackle the criminal activity. Miss Carey advised Members that the collection and enforcement of fly tipping was the primary responsibility of the district and borough councils, of which KCC played a key supportive role via the KRP.

2.    Supplementary to the above Mrs Allard provided an update to Members on the key actions to date and referred in particular to the “Op Assist” action days, the duty of care communications campaign, the duty of care small business course, enforcement signage, magistrates training and the consistency of reporting.

3.    Officers responded to comments and questions as follows:

(a)  Mrs Allard informed Members that Kent County Council were part of the National Fly Tipping Prevention Group which reviewed the work undertaken across the county. Mrs Allard agreed to review Members requests to circulate feedback from the Magistrates Association.

(b)  In response to assisting landowners, Mrs Allard confirmed that it was primarily the responsibility of the landowner to appropriately dispose of any fly tipped waste, however, if there was sufficient evidence and an investigation to be undertaken in relation to the incident, then subject to available resources from the District or Borough Council, KCC would help to support the District and Borough  councils in the prosecution process.

(c)   With regard to the dissemination of information to Town and Parish Councils, Mrs Allard assured Members that KCC officers had attended the Parish seminars in order to raise awareness of the campaign. In January 2020, the Waste Management Team also intended to promote the duty of care campaign via short information videos and animations online, via social media, posters, leaflets, newspaper adverts and bus advertisements. The main message of the campaign for residents was to alert them to rogue traders operating in Kent. 

(d)  Mrs Allard confirmed that the days of action had proved to be a successful joint operation and resulted in the following:

·         Swale: 3 vehicles seized, 5 stopped and 2 fixed penalty notices

·         Maidstone: 1 vehicle seized, 1 stopped and 1 fixed penalty notice

·         Thanet: 2 vehicles seized, 21 stopped and 8 notices and 1 fixed penalty notice

Mrs Allard agreed to circulate prosecution results to Members.

(e)  In response to queries concerning the drop in residual waste and cross-border usage of Household Waste Recycling Centres, Mrs Allard confirmed that the Waste Management Team was due to undertake a postcode data collection survey at the sites and said that the data would be included within the evaluation report of the scheme. With regard to volume of materials deposited at the Medway Household Waste Recycling Centre, Mrs Allard confirmed that this had also reduced.

(f)    Mrs Allard informed the Committee that it was the duty of District and Borough Councils to instigate days of action, however, KCC did sit on

(g)  Mrs Allard informed the Committee that it was the duty of District and Borough Councils to instigate days of action, however, agreed to raise the issue of installing cameras at the identified hotspots within Tunbridge & Malling and Gravesham with the Enforcement officers who sat on the Environmental Crime Practitioners Working Group.

4.      It was RESOLVED that the report be noted.