A dedicated team that was created to tackle fly-tipping in Blaenau Gwent is already bringing numbers of incidents down in the area, figures show.
Blaenau Gwent Council’s Community Services Scrutiny committee praised the fly-tipping enforcement team's activity on the 2021/22 report, and say they will continue to support the waste regulation work of the front line enforcement service.
The new team which has been in operation since September 2021 is said to have provided a more co-ordinated approach to dealing with illegal accumulations of waste in town centres, as well as targeting both rural and semi-rural settings.
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Figures for this year so far show that the number of incidents recorded in Blaenau Gwent has reached 1,298, which is over 350 down from the 1,661 incidents recorded in 2020/21.
Work carried out by the team includes issuing fixed penalty notices of up to £400, as well as further investigations where the teams are able to use a number of legal sanctions available to them which are contained within the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Funding has also been secured from Keep Wales Tidy in June 2021 for the procurement of CCTV surveillance equipment. The front line enforcement team has now taken delivery of the majority of this equipment and is starting to deploy it into areas frequently used by fly-tippers.
It is a move that has been praised by local litter picking groups around the borough, with many saying they are happy to see that more is being done.
Steve Young is the leader of the Ebbw Vale litter picking group and says the creation of the team is definitely a step in the right direction.
He said: "To be fair I think our council in Blaenau Gwent does take the issue of fly-tipping seriously and the work this new team are doing represents a step in the right direction for the area.
"For me I think the biggest change that has to be made is not just the clearing up of rubbish, but the attitudes of people who are fly-tipping their waste in the first place. We can often go and clean a hot-spot in Ebbw Vale then the next day someone has dumped more there again. It's very disheartening and is nobody's fault but the people who leave it."
Councillor Joanna Wilkins, the council’s executive member for the environment, said the council was committed to keeping the area clean.
She said: "Fly-tipping is a criminal offence and we are clamping down on those who dispose of their waste illegally by increasing our enforcement activities and bringing offenders to justice. The vast majority of our residents are responsible and we are committed to keeping Blaenau Gwent a clean and green environment."
From April 2021 to February 2022 the following waste regulation actions have been taken by the authority:
- 11 fly-tipping £400 fixed penalty notices issued.
- 5 household duty of care £300 fixed penalty notices issued.
- Commercial duty of care £300 fixed penalty notices issued.
- 77 incidents of fly-tipping on private land investigated.
- 525 enforcement warden enquiries received.
- 424 town centre fly-tipping complaints investigated.
- 79 first stage warning letters issued for misplacing domestic waste at unofficial waste collection points.
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