Agenda item

The draft final report of Fly Tipping and Bulky Waste Task Group is presented for Overview and Scrutiny approval.

The final report of the Fly Tipping and Bulky Waste Task Group was presented to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Chair of the Task Group introduced the report and commented in terms of the overall findings that the Council’s bulky collection service was important given that a high proportion of fly tips in Redditch consisted of household waste such as black bags or other household items such as white goods, electrical appliances and green garden waste. It was noted that most of these fly tipping occurred within residential areas. The Task Group felt that the Council provided a competitive and reasonably priced bulky collection service, with further promotion of the service necessary to increase awareness of this offer among Redditch residents.

The Chair of the Task Group stated that the Task Group felt the main action that should be taken to tackle neighbourhood fly tipping remained education and promotion of information relating to responsible disposal of waste.

It was explained that the Task Group’s report detailed a change to arrangements in fly tipping enforcement across the Borough. This responsibility was transferred from the Council to Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) as of 1 June 2024. It was felt that monitoring the effect of this change was important and to this end, the Task Group’s recommendation was for officers from WRS to provide a twice-yearly update to Overview and Scrutiny on fly tipping enforcement work.

During the discussion of the Task Group’s report the following points were raised:

·       Resident survey on fly tipping - A Member expressed disappointment that a resident survey on fly tipping, as detailed within the report, was not progressed by the Task Group in 2024-25. It was clarified that this was a proposal made under the previous (2023-24) Membership of the Task Group and that this survey was not released in that municipal year. Following the elections in May 2024, the membership of the Task Group changed and the 2024-25 (current) Membership of the Task Group, which commissioned this final report, decided not to progress with the survey as it did not consider this the best way forward.

·       Merits and disadvantages of a fly tipping survey – During discussion of the fly tipping survey a Member explained that there seemed to be socio-economic link between people’s ability to afford the bulky collection service and neighbourhood fly tipping. In areas of higher deprivation, there seemed more fly tipping of bulky items such as white goods. With this in mind it was commented that there seemed merit in providing a survey to ascertain residents’ views on the affordability of the bulky collection service and consider residents’ views.

·       Responding to this comment, the Task Group Chair explained that whilst he agreed there appeared a connection between the people’s financial situation and levels of neighbourhood fly tipping, the Task Group established that the Council offered a competitively priced bulky collection service that was significantly cheaper than that offered by many other authorities and that significant effort was made to set prices at affordable level for residents. The Task Group Chair also commented that he felt carrying out a survey would not address the engrained attitudes that were prevalent in those areas where neighbourhood fly tipping was high. Instead, the Task Group Chair felt there was a need for communities to build pride in their neighbourhoods as this would mean more residents took responsibility for keeping their neighbourhoods clean.

·       Consideration of mobile household recycling scheme – It was noted that the 2023-24 Task Group membership considered the mobile household recycling scheme that operated in Birmingham. A Member expressed disappointment that this case study was not given further consideration by the 2024-25 Task Group membership as the Member felt, having seen this scheme in use, that this could provide significant benefits to Redditch, such as Woodrow ward. The Chair of the Task Group responded that when Task Group Members discussed this with officers, numerous issues, legal and practical, were identified where identified based on the implementation of such schemes at other district level authorities. Some of these issues were detailed in the final report. The Chair of the Task Group also felt that such scheme would put unnecessary financial strain on the Council and a more effective strategy would be to promote the Council’s current offer in counteracting fly tipping, particularly its bulky collection service.

·       Promotion of the bulky collection service - Whilst the report noted that there was fairly high demand for bulky waste collection service, the service was under-utilised in some parts of Redditch, particularly in those areas which saw high level of neighbourhood-type fly tipping. Members concurred in the view that the Council needed to do more to advertise its services generally, and the bulky collection service specifically, as this could be one of the main ways through which fly tipping in Redditch could be reduced.

Following discussion, the recommendation of the Task Group’s final report was approved, The final report would be considered by the Executive Committee.

RECOMMENDED that

the Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) provide a bi-annual

update report to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, which reviews fly tipping data and enforcement work undertaken in the Borough.