Issue - meetings

[Report of the Director for Environment and Neighbourhoods. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Environment.]

To agree a strategy to tackle fly-tipping in the Borough.

The Cabinet Member for Environment introduced the report which sought Cabinet to adopt the Fly Tipping Strategy 2019 – 2024 and note the Action Plan for 2019-2020.

The Cabinet Member was delighted to introduce the strategy and informed it would mitigate against the adverse effects of fly-tipping on the community and environment.

The Cabinet Member praised the efforts of the community in working against fly tipping, specifically Tidy Up Tottenham, and looked forward to working with more local groups in the future to combat fly tipping in Haringey.

In response to questions from Cllr Ejiofor and Cllr Palmer, the following information was noted:

• The Cabinet Member confirmed that enforcement was as much a part of the Fly Tipping Strategy as education.
• The Cabinet Member informed there would be a number of staff already employed by the Council who would be involved in the delivery of the strategy, not just the proposed project manager who would co-ordinate the delivery of the plan.

RESOLVED

1. To adopt the Fly Tipping Strategy 2019 – 2024 attached at appendix 1

2. To note the Action Plan for 2019-2020 attached at appendix 2.

Reasons for decision

A fly tip is rubbish left on the street (or other land) without arrangements for its collection and without agreement with the council. A small proportion of fly tips in Haringey is left by illegal waste collectors (just 4%) – the vast majority (83%) is household waste, often presented in the wrong place and/or at the wrong time. The remaining 13% of fly tips is from local businesses. Of the fly tips that are household waste, nearly half are carrier bags or black bin bags and over a quarter is furniture.

Last year (2017/18), Haringey received reports of 24,000 fly tips and a similar level is projected for 2018/19. The cost to Haringey’s tax payers to collect fly tipping is over £3 million per year. This has a wider impact on the council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy, and the council’s ability to provide other vital services to our residents.

Haringey’s Borough Plan has made a firm commitment to reducing the levels of fly tipping in the borough, as part of the Place Priority. Our ambition is for a borough which is cleaner, accessible and attractive. We know from our 2018 Resident Satisfaction Survey that cleanliness is a top priority for residents (11% of residents saying this makes a difference to their day to day quality of life), second only to safety (13%). 

The Fly Tipping Strategy sets out an approach using three strands, to be   delivered through a series of ‘hot spot’ targeted locations (see section 6.11):

• Education, communication and early intervention
• Prevention of recurrence
• Targeted enforcement

The approach in the draft Strategy has been defined over a five year period          using existing resources across the Waste Client Team, Enforcement, Communications and our waste contractor Veolia.

Alternative options considered

Do nothing. There is clear ambition in Haringey for a cleaner environment, as captured in the new Borough Plan’s ‘Place’ Priority.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 131