The Head of Environment and
Public Realm introduced the report as an update following the
creation of the Waste Crime Team and in-house operation of litter
enforcement. It was noted that litter enforcement was brought
in-house due to reputational damage that the Council had suffered
when the service was contracted out.
The Head of Environment and
Public Realm informed the Committee that there had been ongoing
recruitment and retention issues with only one post filled within
the last 12 months. To mitigate this, litter enforcement would
focus on the use of vehicle rather than foot patrols to provide
greater variance in the role. Further, it was possible that the
Waste Crime Team assume the responsibility in carrying out
enforcement activity in the future. This would include Section 36
Notices, Community Protection Warnings and the issue of
Notices.
Particular attention was drawn
to the 364 littering FPNs that had been issued, 75% of which were
as a result of littering from vehicles, two fly-tipping
prosecutions with additional pending cases, and 25 vehicle
seizures. It was noted that the team’s second to last social
media post concerning the seizures reached 88,000 individuals and
generated 5,500 responses, comments or reactions. Monthly joint
operations had been conducted with Kent Police’s rural task
force.
RESOLVED: That the content of the
report be noted, and that the Committee express their thanks to the
Waste Crime Team for their efforts over the past year.