Issue - meetings

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.