BCP Council extends six-month pilot to tackle flytipping

A PILOT scheme to tackle flytipping across the BCP Council area could be extended until November.

In September 2021 the council contracted out investigation and enforcement to a private company on a cost-neutral basis, writes Trevor Bevins of the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Since then it has investigated more than 1,500 flytipping incidents and issued just short of 200 fixed penalty notices. For fly-posting there have been 10 investigations and seven fixed penalties issued.

The idea was to see how the service operated for six months before making a decision about the longer term – but now councillors are being told the six-month assessment has not been enough and the trial period should continue until November this year.

The extra time will allow for the additional publicity, to improve working with the council’s waste compliance officers and to look at how other councils run their schemes.

A further report will then come back to Cabinet in the autumn to make a long-term decision on the future of the service.

A council report says that prior to this pilot project, the authority did not investigate all reports of flytipping and had limited data on the scale of the problem in the area.

“The pilot has delivered its original objectives to investigate all reports of flytipping and fly-posting, to take enforcement action where an offence has been committed and fundamentally supports the Council’s Cleaner, Greener, Safer campaign,” said a report which will be considered by an overview committee meeting on 19th May.

“The initial pilot period presents too short a timescale for the data collected by WISE to date to fully illustrate the challenges these environmental crimes cause BCP Council. Extending the pilot will provide further understanding to help enable officers and members make the best decision for how the service operates longer term.

“A more effective communications campaign will help mitigate some of the adverse reactions by those found to have committed an offence and closer working with the Council’s Waste Compliance Officers will ensure better co-ordination of efforts and improve the public’s understanding of the impact that flytipping and fly-posting has on the environment.

"Further time with the pilot will enable officers to speak to other councils that are exhibiting best practice with regards to deterrents against flytipping and other environmental crimes, and this information and subsequent recommendations will be provided at the further cabinet meeting in November 2022.”