Monday 9th January 2012

Swale tops the league for tackling flytipping

Figures released by DEFRA (The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) show that Swale Borough Council is the most successful Council in Kent for obtaining prosecutions for flytipping offences.

The figures, released on 13 December 2011, show that in the financial year 2010/11, Swale Borough Council obtained 12 prosecutions, as part of its overall campaign to educate and enforce in order to create a cleaner and greener Swale.

In all, 1918 incidents of flytipping were reported, all of which were looked into by the Council.

Commenting on the figures, Councillor David Simmons, Swale Borough Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment and Rural Affairs, said “We welcome the figures as it demonstrates clearly our priority to make Swale a cleaner and greener place for everyone. The figures highlight not only the excellent work of our Street Wardens and Environment Officers, but also the vital role that our residents and the local media play in this success.

"Residents tell us that flytipping is something that annoys them and we try to target our limited resources at the issues that concern them, which is why this recognition is also pleasing. We could not do this on our own though, and it is the public acting as our eyes and ears that help us to target those who are responsible for dumping waste.

"We have always said that prosecution is a last resort, and we try to balance our proactive and reactive work, but we will prosecute where it is in the public interest to do so and we have obviously had success when doing so."

The Council’s Street Wardens were awarded joint first place in the South East Warden awards in 2009. The Street Wardens and Environment Officers work together on many duties including deterring and tackling anti-social behaviour, dealing with flytipping and graffiti and issuing fixed penalty notices against people who drop litter. Their role is to help, educate and encourage people to be aware of the consequences of their actions; they are also able to take enforcement action when required.

The Environment Response Team has dealt with thousands of cases of anti-social behaviour since the team was formed back in 2004. The team play a key role in neighbourhood policing and work closely with all the key partners in Swale’s Community Safety Partnership and get involved with targeted campaigns with other partners such as the KCC Clean Kent Team, and the Environment Agency.