At this week’s meeting of the Environment Scrutiny Panel which I mentioned earlier, officers put forward a report on current action taken by the Council to tackle environmental crimes such a fly-tipping and graffiti.
The Lib Dems had requested this report come forward as we feel a lot more can be done to tackle fly-tipping and dumping of rubbish in our town. You may remember we tabled a motion to Council as part of this campaign which was defeated by a coalition of Labour and Tory councillors. As well as the need for more enforcement, we feel that the Labour-run Council’s failed policy of charging for bulky waste collection has made problems much worse.
In Redlands, rubbish dumped in front gardens is a major problem in the University area, as well as around Hexham Road.
Similarly, after this report rather than noting to report our Lib Dem Chair, Cllr Ricky Duveen proposed a motion which asked Cabinet to:
- Review resources available to carry out enforcement
- Support wider use of powers under section 215 of the Town & Country Planning act
- Support wider use of powers under the Environmental Protection Act and the Clean Neighbourhoods Act
- Officers to present a review to the next meeting of the ES panel.
Conservative members backed our proposal, which was positive. However, once again there was some limited Labour posturing but those Labour members that were left (it had gone on for several hours by this point!) supported motion.
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