Flying start for solution to fly tipping

 

CARDIFF Council is piloting a new “joined-up” approach to fly tipping and littering in the southwest of the city, The Cardiffian can reveal today.

The test scheme in the city’s Riverside, Canton, Ely and Caerau wards started last Monday and will last three months. Its aim is to provide a more efficient challenge to recurring problems of fly tipping and littering.
Teams previously worked in street cleaning, parks, education and enforcement “silos” under the council’s environment directorate. This approach meant information and duties were not shared between groups – workers cleaning parks leaving litter outside the park’s boundary for street cleaners.
Staff involved volunteered to take part in this new practice, which councillors claim has been successfully used by other local authorities. Training will be given to take on extra duties, and street cleaners will be able to issue fines if they witness offences instead of leaving it to enforcement
officers.
The maximum fine for fly tipping is £50,000. Currently, enforcement officers enforce penalties where they have reliable evidence, but this can prove difficult to obtain.
Under the pilot program, resources will be pooled and staff relocated from Lamby Way to Brindley Road in Grangetown – cutting down on travel time to problem areas.
A single email address will make it easier to contact these teams.

There are longstanding problems with litter and fly-tipping in areas like Riverside.

A CCTV deterrent discussed at this month’s Riverside and Pontcanna PACT meetings has proved to be a non-starter – the cameras needed for larger-scale fly tipping and anti-social behaviour issues.
Privacy issues have been raised over use of CCTV, but with strong enough need Councillor Darren Williams claims overt cameras may help with prevention. Even then, there is a lengthy application process for this.
These measures will be supplemented by community-based initiatives, like litter-picks.
Coun Williams said: “There are longstanding problems with litter and fly-tipping in areas like Riverside. These undermine the quality of life of the majority of residents, who want to live in a clean, safe and visually attractive environment.

“Despite the considerable financial pressure on council resources, we need to find ways of addressing such problems more effectively and I am optimistic that the neighbourhood management pilot will do just that.”