Agenda item

E Walker introduced the report.

Cllr Timmis asked about percentages on page 20, but percentages of what? 

E. Walker stated that the Appendix contains the actual numbers e.g.on Page 25 states the targets and 796 fly tips were reported and 80 percent of these were attended to within 3 days.

Cllr Timmis said that HCC together with DBC have issued leaflets to households about not allowing unlicensed traders to take waste, but she feels that nothing is being done about those who are doing the fly tipping and asked why that was when it is occurring in such huge numbers.

E Walker said that we do have a high number but it’s comparable across Herts. She added that in terms of catching fly tippers, we do get high numbers of Fixed Penalty Notices and similar numbers of prosecutions compared with other authorities. E Walker said that it is incredibly hard to catch people and they are looking into different cameras to pilot over next few months to see if that is successful. These new cameras are relatively inexpensive and smaller they are for use predominantly in rural areas where there are more places to hide them.

Cllr Anderson told the committee that through membership of Herts Waste Partnership – a fly tipping group that does a lot of work to combat the problem, overall the the amount of fly tipping is coming down, and that needs to be recognised, although it is a very real problem.   Cllr Anderson added that it is very difficult and expensive to prosecute and that there had been a prosecution of a fly tipper this quarter. He explained that the fly tipping group is lobbying government to make it easier for authorities to take effective action and he did not think it was fair to say nothing is being done.

Cllr Beauchamp commended the enforcement team for their rapid response to instances of fly tipping he has reported in Hemel town. 

Cllr Beauchamp asked about the 41 accidents in Q2 shown in 2.8 andif it would it be possible to have a breakdown of the severity of these.

E Walker replied that she could circulate a breakdown and added that 2.9 shows the major accidents, the rest would be minor ones. 

Cllr Birnie asked whether there had been a response regarding the three accidents reported to HSE.

E Walker explained that they don’t have to respond and it is up to them if they wish to start an investigation.

Cllr Silwal asked how many cases of Hand Arm Vibration (HAV) there were.

E Walker answered that one staff member had HAV syndrome, the number of staff that could have been affected was about 80.

Cllr Anderson said that when Councillors visit Cupid Green, they can see equipment to prevent this.

Cllr Birnie asked the question - what is ECP?

E Walker responded that it is the department name of Environmental & Community Protection.

Cllr Birnie said that he did not understand the sentence in item 6.5.2.

E Walker explained that the Prevention of Damage by Pests act is an act allows us deal with rodent infestations on land and we served several notices to deal with these.

The report was noted