Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Dixon.

There were no declarations made at the meeting.

To approve the Minutes of the Community Safety Partnership Working Party meeting held on 13 March 2018, copy attached.

Councillor Campbell proposed, Councillor M. Saunders seconded and Members agreed the minutes as a correct record of the meeting that was held on 13 March 2018.

Trevor Kennett, Head of Operational Services gave a presentation regarding fly-tipping in the district and made the following points:

• Fly-tipping is the illegal dumping of liquid or solid waste on land or in water;
• The waste is usually dumped in order to avoid things like disposal costs and readily available white vans who offer a cheap  illegal service;
• The waste and recycling centres do not allow vans making is it difficult for some individuals to dispose of waste, which is also a contributing factor;
• Most of the waste is  domestic or commercial;
• Fly-tipping is a criminal offence and when caught the offending individual would be interviewed under caution , using the appropriate criminal procedures;
• Individuals can bring in their lawyers and the proceedings are recorded;
• If the case is forwarded to the Magistrates’ Court the maximum fine would be £50,000 and/or a 12 months’ imprisonment;
• If the accused opts to go to the Crown Court (although it’s not advisable), the Court has the option to impose a maximum penalty of 5 years;
• There is also another offence linked to fly-tipping, which is the Duty of Care. This means that the person whose waste would have been collected for disposal still owns that waste and is responsible for its correct disposal;
• If such waste was illegally dumped they be prosecuted by the authority unless satisfy the authority that they disposed in good faith via a service provider that claimed to dispose of waste;

• There are a number of duty of care offences that the council has had to prosecute;
• The majority of such cases are reports from the highways; There is a clear problem of fly-tipping in Thanet ad the following stats help give a picture of the scale of the problem:

2017 – 2,487 Fly-tipping/Dumped Rubbish reports received by TDC with the following breakdown:

vHighway – 1757;

vPrivate land – 363;

vAlleyways – 151;

vCommercial/Industrial – 74;

vCouncil land – 72;

vAgricultural – 66;

vTrade waste – 4;

• In 2017/18 TDC has taken some enforcement action against fly-tipping as follows:

v2,356 – Fixed Penalty Notices (littering);

v974 Street Scene Enforcement Notices;

v85 – Formal advice notices were given;

v48 – Fly-tipping £400 FPNs were issued;

v36 – Cases were referred to Community Payback;

v65 – Formal warnings were issued;

v9 – Criminal prosecutions for fly-tipping were processed;

v10 – Formal cautions with costs were issued (these are used usually when an individual who owns the waste has fully cooperated with the Council and has paid for the costs for appropriately disposing of the waste).

• In addition to enforcement action taken, the Council also engages residents in awareness campaigns to raise awareness to the fly-tipping problems in the district and advise the public about the facilities available for waste disposal;
• Council would also be providing additional signage and warnings regarding fly-tipping and related surveillance in the problem areas in the district;
• To date Council had sought  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.