Agenda item

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Transformation and Partnerships that presented the progress towards achieving the key outcomes of the Council’s corporate performance framework for the Altogether Greener priority theme (for copy of report, see file of minutes).

The Corporate Scrutiny and Strategy Manager was in attendance to present the report.

Councillor Crute advised that the fly tipping trends were positive but indicated that in the East of the county from November there had been an increase in the number of fly tipping incidents and inquired if there had been a huge reduction in other areas of the County.

The Corporate Scrutiny and Strategy Manager advised that it would be interesting to look at long-term trends on fly tipping on a geographical basis across the county. He agreed to look into whether this could be presented to a future committee meeting.

The Chairman referred to the pilot exercise of the members’ portal, that he was part of and advised Members that the new system provided more detailed information on fly-tipping by division.

Councillor Crute suggested that Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC) was an area that the committee may want to review at a future date and as part of this work the committee could take the opportunity to look at fly tipping trends.

Councillor Jopling referred to fly-tipping in her area that had not reduced and was concerned that out of 27 cameras deployed throughout the County by the County Council  only one incident had been captured and asked if the cameras were in the right places as there were known hotspots.

The Corporate Scrutiny and Strategy Manager advised that where cameras are located the must be a notice warning the public of the cameras and this could be a deterrent to some would be fly tippers. If the fly tip was on private land then this would not be recorded by the County Council.

Councillor Jopling then asked if the Council liaised with landowners in relation to fly tipping on private land to resolve the issues.

The Chairman responded that the council were working with landowners and farmers on fly-tipping.

Councillor Jopling asked why the numbers were so low for fly-tipping enforcement.

The Chairman indicated that the evidence may not be strong enough to take the incident to court or the vehicle number plate could not be identified.

Councillor Howell referred to the CO₂ admissions and asked why the data was from 2016 as this was now out of date and the target from the original strategy was met.

The Corporate Scrutiny and Strategy Manager advised the Member that the target was part of the strategy. The Chairman responded that the strategy may need to be reviewed and new targets developed.

Councillor Dunn referred to the increased incidents of fly-tipping in his area that were on roads leading from the household waste recycle centre and recently 55 tyres had been dumped at St. Helen’s Church at Kelloe and would be interested to see the statistics for fly tipping.

Mr Bolton suggested that it would be good to see breakdown of fly tipping in areas and if this could be further broken down into types of fly tipping as it would be interesting to see the mix giving types and indicated that in the East of the county there was the potential for  fly-tipping issues from people outside of the County.

The Corporate Scrutiny and Strategy Manager advised Members that the fly-tipping incidents were coded but the household waste centres were for domestic waste only so this may cause an issue. Recent data indicated that it was bags of domestic waste that was most often fly tipped but he would update the committee on the types of waste being fly tipped at a future meeting of the committee.

Councillor Turnbull referred to tyres and advised that there was criteria for tyre disposal and that garages must adhere to it.

Members asked if some of the fly-tipping was garden waste. The Corporate Scrutiny and Strategy Manager confirmed that some of the fly-tipping was garden waste.

Councillor Milburn referred to the roll out of the Green Move and was astounded at the amount collected and suggested that there must be very rich students in Durham City.

Mrs Holding commented that there was a cost to collect household waste and not everyone was able to get to a household waste centre and advised that the Council charged residents to remove tree clippings and in some scenarios people in trucks will pick up garden waste and dump it rather than taking it to HWRC.

Councillor Crute referred to the recent vehicle that was seized then crushed and that people were being taken advantage of as they were paying a fee to get their rubbish removed by individuals who then fly-tipped the rubbish. He indicated that this needed to be addressed.

The Chairman advised Members that this would be followed up.

Resolved: That the report be noted.