Blaenau Gwent Council’s Community Services Scrutiny committee has welcomed a Fly Tipping Enforcement Activity 2021/22 report and will continue to support the waste regulation work and development of the Frontline Enforcement Service.
A new Frontline Enforcement Team has been in operation since September 2021. This has resulted in a more co-ordinated and integrated approach in dealing with illegal accumulations of waste in town centres and rural / semi-rural settings.
There are a number of legal sanctions available to the Frontline Enforcement Team which are contained within the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Since April 2021 until February 2022 the following waste regulation actions have been taken by the Authority:
• 11 Fly-tipping £400 fixed penalty notices issued.
• 5 Household duty of care £300 fixed penalty notices issued.
• 2 Commercial duty of care £300 fixed penalty notices issued.
• 77 incidents of fly-tipping on private land investigated.
• 525 Enforcement Warden enquiries received.
• 424 Town Centre fly-tipping complaints investigated.
• 79 First stage warning letters issued for misplacing domestic waste at unofficial waste collection points.
Throughout 2021 enforcement action has been reduced as a result of the pandemic. However, during the last comparative year of 2019/20 Blaenau Gwent was eighth out of 22 Local Authorities. More recently (2020/21) in relation to fly-tipping incidents the Council sits twelfth out of the 22 Welsh Authorities with 1661 incidents recorded.
Funding has also been secured from Keep Wales Tidy in June 2021 for the procurement of CCTV surveillance equipment. The Frontline Enforcement Team has now taken delivery of the majority of this equipment and is starting to deploy it into areas frequently used by fly-tippers.
Councillor Joanna Wilkins, the Council’s Executive Member for the Environment said:
“Fly-tipping is a criminal offence and we are clamping down on those who dispose of their waste illegally by increasing our enforcement activities and bringing offenders to justice. The vast majority of our residents are responsible and we are committed to keeping Blaenau Gwent a clean and green environment.”
