Faster response times on fly-tipping
Local authorities could soon be required to provide information on how quickly they respond to reports of fly-tipping, if a new bill is passed.
The bill was presented to the House of Commons on February 9 by Member of Parliament for Enfield North, Joan Ryan.
Although local authorities now have increased powers to take action against fly-tippers Ryan feels that fly-tipping remains a big problem in her constituency.
She said: “In Enfield in November 2009 alone, there were nearly 1,400 reported cases of fly-tipping and over the course of a year we face not far off 10,000 reported incidents of fly-tipping.”
In order to try and combat this problem, the bill, if passed, would ask local authorities to submit information to the Environment Agency relating to their responses times to incidences of fly-tipping alongside all the other information which they are already required to provide on fly-tipping.
At present local authorities have to tell the EA how much fly-tipping takes place, how they deal with it and how much it costs to clear up, but Ryan believes asking for this additional information on response times would encourage authorities to be more pro-active and possibly even prevent further fly-tipping.
“No local authority would want the dubious title of ‘the slowest council in Britain to deal with fly-tipping’, and no voter would tolerate a council that dragged its heels in removing rubbish,” said Ryan.
“Publishing response times is not just about getting council to remove rubbish more quickly. Important though it is, it is also about reducing the amount of fly-tipping in the first place. Removing rubbish quickly would also act as a deterrent to fly-tippers.”
Ryan believes that this bill would only mean a simple change which could produce hugely positive results.
The bill was supported by Siobhain McDonagh MP, Andrew Dismore MP and Fiona Mctaggart MP, among others, and will get a second reading in the House of Commons on April 30.
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