Conclusions and recommendations
1.We
commend the Agency for having the vision to see the need for Flycapture
and the drive to get it up-and-running on schedule. We
encourage those local authorities not already signed up to it
to do so promptly. (Paragraph 5)
2.We applaud DEFRA for
its consultations on fly-tipping, which were well thought out
and comprehensive. We hope that the Department acts upon the
responses it has received speedily and effectively to assist in
stamping out this national blight. (Paragraph 9)
3.We believe it is vital
that local authorities who until now have been happy to leave
fly-tipping for the Agency to deal with—with consequent
burdens upon Agency resources—now take the lead in the fight
against this phenomenon, and that those already playing a full
part continue to act effectively with the Agency in dealing with
this blight. (Paragraph 11)
4.it is vital that the
Government fund the fight against fly-tipping sufficiently to
enable inroads to be made into its current unwelcome growth.
Consultations are pointless unless there is a chance that some
of the new powers over which individuals and organisations are
being consulted will be properly resourced. (Paragraph 12)
5. the public needs to
be made more aware that it ought to ensure that those dealing
with its domestic waste are indeed dealing with it legally and
not just dumping it illegally for easy profit; but a system which
prosecuted householders for allowing others to fly-tip their waste,
in other words for crimes which they did not commit, is neither
practicable nor politically feasible.
(Paragraph 14)
6.Not all businesses that
are caught having had their waste fly-tipped are deliberately
flouting duty of care legislation. Many are ignorant of the very
provisions by which they are caught. Government, in co-operation
with the Agency and local authorities, needs to address this worrying
level of ignorance. (Paragraph 15)
7.We support the call
for greater flexibility in penalties for enforcement authorities:
joined-up enforcement calls for greater co-operation and does
not necessarily imply a rigid system of penalties that might result
in inappropriate local impacts. (Paragraph 17)
8.local authorities and
the Agency desire to have the sort of fast, computerised access
to Driving and Vehicle Licence Agency (DVLA) records that the
police authorities have. Currently they have to attempt to access
this information by post—which takes so much time that it
is practically useless for investigative/enforcement purposes.
This is frankly unsatisfactory and it is surprising that no action
has been taken to allow enforcement authorities speedy access
to such information vital for the investigation of
crimes. (Paragraph 19)
9.The changes to its powers
requested by the Agency are all, in our opinion, perfectly reasonable
and we find it difficult to imagine that the Government will not
accept them. (Paragraph 19)
10.The proposal to raise
maxima for sentences for fly-tipping is very much to be welcomed
and we hope to see it implemented speedily. (Paragraph 20)
11.More community sentences
need to be given, fly-tippers need to be made to clean up their
own and other fly-tipped waste as punishment (and deterrent),
and the vehicles of fly-tippers need to be confiscated along with
their driving licences (Paragraph 21)
12.This proposal to remove
the defence that a person "acted under instructions from
his employer and neither knew nor had reason to suppose that the
acts done by him constituted a contravention of law" is very
much to be welcomed and its speedy implementation encouraged.
(Paragraph 22)
13.While we accept that
there is always room for encouraging private landowners to do
more to prevent fly-tipping on their land, it would be unjust
to require them to prevent such fly-tipping or suffer increased
costs: this is one area where we hope the Government will maintain
the legal status quo. (Paragraph 25)
14.The amendment of duty
of care provisions for developers and those involved in development
is a common-sense proposal that we consider likely to be effective
in limiting the current illegal dumping of construction, excavation
and demolition wastes; and we look to the Government to see its
way to incorporating it into relevant regulations or statutory
guidance as soon as practicable. (Paragraph 28)
15.Given the proposals
for a massive expansion in development for housing in the south-east,
the inevitable increase in development wastes, and the contraction
of some of the principal historic means of their legal disposal,
it is vital that the Government put in place the proposals put
forward by the Agency in order to prevent a substantial increase
in fly-tipping in a part of the country already blighted by very
significant increases over the last few years. (Paragraph 29)
16.We re-iterate that
if the Government wishes to see fly-tipping reduced it must match
its rhetoric with resources and seriously consider agreeing to
the Agency's requests for greater financial support as a price
clearly worth paying. (Paragraph 30)
17.As we made clear in
our last Report on Environmental Crime and the Courts, sentences
for environmental crime are often too low and occasionally derisory.
This is certainly the case with regard to fly-posting. (Paragraph
33)
18.The Government must
ensure that the law facilitates the investigation and prosecution
of companies which pay for their products or events to be illegally
advertised. It should look into ways of making it easier for
local authorities to take such companies to court, to compile
evidence from company records for the purposes of prosecution,
and thereby to lead successful cases against offending companies.
(Paragraph 34)
19.Maxima for sentences
for fly-posting should be raised further from their current levels:
DEFRA's proposals for sentencing with regard to fly-tipping are
a useful indication that the Government is keen to see maxima
raised where appropriate. Fly-posting is certainly an area for
such appropriate increases. (Paragraph 35)
20.The burden of upkeep
of cabinets and other items of telecommunications street furniture
ought to lie with those companies who install them in order to
provide a service from which they profit. (Paragraph 39)
21.Those offenders who
fly-post on street furniture must be caught and prosecuted: the
blight they create must not be ignored, or their damage treated
as too expensive or frequent to remediate. (Paragraph 39)
22.The Local Government
Association must do more to act as an effective coordinator for
best practice and for information relating to successful techniques
adopted by local authorities—whether in terms of prosecutions,
control and management or in terms of reducing fly-posting altogether.
The law is clearly not satisfactory here; neither are the punishments
currently meted out. Local authorities will need to be able to
wield a bigger legal stick if they are to beat the fly-poster
and stay ahead of the game. (Paragraph 40)
23.it is clear that anti-social
behaviour in general, and litter and graffiti in particular, have
become so prevalent, and people's fear of violence or abuse from
its perpetrators so great, that Police Community Support Officers
and other such uniformed community representatives must now play
a major role. (Paragraph 46)
24.Local authorities are
the proper bodies to deal locally with those businesses that they
know are the greatest sources of litter. A national code of conduct
may be useful for those national chains which are centrally managed:
more straightforward local codes are however in all probability
the better way to progress litter minimisation for smaller businesses
and franchises across our cities and towns. (Paragraph 47)
25.We call upon all local
authorities to dedicate themselves to local environmental renewal
which has to be begun by tackling those offences which are dragging
down local environmental standards. We expect the Local Government
Association to play an increasing part in spreading good practice
in these areas and in spearheading the co-operative activity of
councils across the country in tackling this blight. (Paragraph
49)
26.it is evident that
without information it is difficult to assess and tackle in any
real substantive way the problem of noise nuisance. Every local
authority ought to try to ensure that all noise data is sent annually
to the CIEH—or to DEFRA—so that a clearer picture
of noise nuisance and of any relevant trends can be drawn out
and used better to limit noise blight. (Paragraph 58)
27.We are in particular
attracted to CIEH's suggestion to extend the current powers available
under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act from domestic to non-domestic
buildings. Noise nuisance is noise nuisance, whatever its source,
and unreasonable and intrusive levels of noise whether from a
home or from a pub or factory should be dealt with in the same
way, especially where current legislative safeguards appear ineffectual
or cumbersome. (Paragraph 65)
28. government, local
and national, needs to join noise up more effectively with other
local issues, to deal with aural blight as it is dealing with
visual blight, and to make the connection that areas of the country
where there are excessive noise complaints often border upon or
are themselves areas subject to the degrading influence of litter,
graffiti and everything else that goes with them.
(Paragraph 66)
29.As EnCams pointed out
with regard to litter, graffiti and general local environmental
quality, the resources available to local authorities are by and
large sufficient, but those within councils dealing with these
issues often lack the necessary diligence, enthusiasm and persistence
to make those financial resources work effectively. (Paragraph
68)
30.The war on local environmental
blight has to be mainstreamed within local authorities. Co-operation
within and between councils must improve, and likewise between
national government and its agencies and those that act on a more
limited geographical basis. Joined-up action against anti-social
behaviour appears to be working: we hope that action against local
environmental degradation, which is linked in many ways to the
anti-social behaviour agenda, will soon begin to pay similar
dividends. (Paragraph 68)
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