Monday 7 August 2017

Revealed-the true extent and cost of fly-tipping in Brent

The Local Government Association has published an analysis LINK of the extent and cost of fly-tipping in different local authorities. They are careful to point out difficulties in terms of making direct comparisons between authorities (1) but it makes for interesting reading and shows what a huge challenge the issue is here in Brent and across the country. Whether the higher bulk collection fee LINK Brent has introduced from September will worsen the problem remains to be seen.

On the tables below the comparison is with the mean for London local authorities, excluding the City of London. The site is interactive so if you visit you can select other comparisons.


(1) This data is from the collection "ENV24 Fly-tipping incidents and actions taken", published by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Fly-tipping statistics are taken from the WasteDataFlow database.

Fly-tipping is the illegal deposit of waste on land, contrary to Section 33(1)(a) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Local authorities and the Environment Agency both have a responsibility in respect of illegally deposited waste. This includes local authorities and the Environment Agency collecting and reporting data on fly-tipping in their area, this dataset however, only includes LA collected data. Due to varying levels of estimation between councils and years, some caution is needed in the interpretation of the trends. Direct comparison between local authorities may also not be appropriate as there can be some differences in approach, where there is a level of discretion in using the guidance on reporting. The situation is complex and can be influenced by population density, housing stock, demographics, commuter routes, the rigour with which local authorities identify incidents or encourage the public to report incidents, training of street crews, and increased used of more sophisticated methods for capturing and reporting incidents. Therefore, in assessing the figures local authorities should not be classified as 'good' or 'poor' performers based purely on numbers of fly-tips.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know there are big differences between flytipping and general littering but consider this:

Where I now live in Hereford, I once counted the A465 roadside litter bins; along a 30 minute walk toward Hereford city centre I counted 8 bins. By contrast, I have frequently found it difficult to find a street bin anywhere in LB Brent.

Sadly however, our household bin emptying is alternate weeks for waste and recycling bins and sometimes the emptiers miss mine if I don't wheel it out onto the cul-de-sac road away from a neighbour's parked vehicles. I shall be bolder in future regarding that matter, especially as my bins have my house number on them.

Alan Wheatley

Anonymous said...

Should BC really be declaring any costs at all since rubbish clearance, to include fly-tipping, should be covered by Veolia?

Anonymous said...

There is now this from BBC Birmingham & Black Country: Birmingham fly-tipping business owner jailed: ".... He advertised his services online, where it was claimed waste would be disposed of legally and recycled....."

Alan Wheatley