Agenda item

Members of the Partnership were provided with the opportunity to update the rest of the Partners on any developments within their individual districts which may be of interest, and the following was reported;

Lincolnshire County Council – it was reported that the Household Waste Recycling Centre contracts had now been let, and the County Council now managed 9 of the HWRC's, this had resulted in a change of operator at 8 of these sites.  Work was now underway on the haulage contracts for bringing material into the Energy from Waste facility.

North Kesteven District Council – the recruitment process for Mark Taylor's replacement had been completed and David Steels had been appointed.  The transition arrangements were still being worked on.

Work had started on the new depot at Metheringham and it was hoped it would be up and running soon.

City of Lincoln Council – the revised waste enforcement policy would be going to the Executive in August for approval, and would have relevance to this Partnership in relation to contamination enforcement.

Boston Borough Council – training had been carried out by a barrister in relation to enforcement.  In Boston there were many properties which were rented out where the landlords were not managing the waste presented by tenants.

West Lindsey District Council – it was reported that the Chief Executive had recently taken early retirement and the three assistant directors were currently taking on this role between them. 

It was also reported that a policies document review was underway, and relevant policies would be brought to this Partnership in due course.

East Lindsey District Council – work had just commenced on a piece of work in relation to commercial waste collection in the district.  The potential of using the cleansing teams for the collection of commercial waste was being looked at.

South Kesteven District Council – a big member led initiative – The Big Clean, would be commencing in August and would run for 3 months.

Partnership working with West Lindsey on One Public Estate was also taking place, which was a project looking at depots with Highways England, and feasibility work would be carried out with the district councils and county council.

South Holland District Council – a big service review was underway with 120 staff involved, and around 60 at risk.  It was reported that there were a significant number of people looking to leave the authority and so the district would be going through an interview process as well as looking to recruit.  Environmental services were included within this service review.

It was reported that there were three fly tipping cases going through the courts and so far one had had a positive outcome, as the defendant pleaded guilty and was fined £800.

It was also noted that there had been an increase in people advertising on Facebook offering to take away all waste for a fee, which would then be fly-tipped.  It was suggested whether the Partnership could run its own Facebook campaign to warn people against using these services.

It was queried whether there was any advantage to the authorities to collect this waste for free instead of paying to collect fly tipping.  It was noted that there used to be a free bulky waste collection available.  It was queried how much was spent on fly tipping.  It was commented that it was a minority of people who would dump waste illegally.  However, a large portion of this would be construction materials, and so there would be a need to look at how this was disposed of.  It was suggested that this may need to feature in the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy (JMWMS).

It was noted that if a permit scheme for vans to be able to go to the HWRC was introduced, it would need to be their own household waste which was presented.  There was a danger that if a strict permit scheme was introduced, this could also lead to an increase in fly tipping.

It was commented that when the free collection service had been in operation it became unmanageable, and people were still dumping waste illegally.  When opening hours of HWRC's in South Kesteven were reduced, no increase in fly tipping was recorded, and it was reported that the sites were taking more waste over the four days, than when they were open seven days.

There was a duty of care on the householder to check that the person taking away their waste was licensed to do so.

One member advised that each time they came across a Facebook advert offering to take away waste for a fee they sent it onto the enforcement team.  It was commented that they would like catch and prosecute the 'white van man' that carries out this activity rather than the householders.

It was reported that last year Boston Borough Council had included a leaflet with the council tax bill about disposing of bulky waste.

It was noted that this may not be about offering a free service as householders were prepared to pay someone to take away their waste, but more about offering a convenient and reliable service, which could include same day collection.

East Lindsey suggested that it may be useful to provide information in relation to the number of fly-tips by type of waste collected, rather than just the total number of fly-tips, as this may help to identify how many are potentially those types of waste the 'white van man' had collected and dumped.  It was reported that East Lindsey collected information by waste type so this wouldn’t be a difficult task.  Other districts agreed that they would also be able to produce this information.  It was agreed that this fly-tip information for the latest financial year would be brought to the next meeting of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership.

It was commented that people were getting much more careful about ensuring that they were not leaving personal details in fly tipped waste.