Friday 2 October 2015

Fly-Tipping in Brent - Has the Task Force addressed the important issues?

Scrutiny Committee will be deciding the scope of the Fly-Tipping Task Force at its meeting on October 8th.  I get more complaints about fly-tipping than any other issue in Brent as do most councillors.

Does the Scoping Report cover the most important aspects of the problem?


19 comments:

Alison Hopkins said...

That's a very passive document. They're "looking" at the problem. Notihng on outputs, deliverables, targets or anything concrete. Where's the strategic, innovative or dare I say it, even lateral thinking? This is officer led yet again, and Brent are still locked into the same old model of thought.

Anonymous said...

Err - it's going before the committee in November.

Martin Francis said...

Can you elaborate? The above document is going before the Scrutiny Committee on October 8th. Do you mean the Task Group report is on the Scrutiny Agenda for November?

Anonymous said...

Correct. This scope has already been before the committee once, but has been revised. There was some sort of disagreement between Stopp and the officer about what had been agreed.

Anonymous said...

The scope isn't as same as the actual report, though, is it?

A scope can't suggest targets or deliverables - that's the point of the report itself. The outputs are fairly clear.

Perhaps wait and see, although I'm not sure anything will make you happy.

Anonymous said...

Outsourcing, Outsourcing, Outsourcing... A wonderful example - so nothing is going to change.

Alison Hopkins said...

A competent scoping study can most certainly specify desired outcomes and it should do just that. I used to write a fair few of them for local government and other public sector organisations. They're typically used to inform and define more detailed specifications of the tasks needed to produce the results - the report, in their terms. There's little point in scoping something if you don't kow what the objectives are.

Anonymous said...

Can't pay...? But a first class service for those who fly tip, so why pay ?

Anonymous said...

Fly tip!? Get rich quick & exploit ... We love Brent! Vieolia XXx

Anonymous said...

Was any effort put into finding residents that were concerned about this matter and what were their contributions to the written the report?

Anonymous said...

I'm glad for your inside knowledge Alison, catching the task farce out on their lack of foresight.

Meg Howarth said...

There is always something fly-tipped along Longstone Avenue whenever I walk the length of the road, whatever the day. Last week, it was three mattresses in three separate locations, and some soggy carpet.

Alison Hopkins said...

John Duffy seems to be asking for input to his own assessment of the issue. I shall email him I think - I know of no Dollis Hill residents being asked for contributions.

Alison Hopkins said...

19:06 - yes, a good assessment.

Outsourcing? It can work for infrastructure but all too often for services is the last resort of the desperate. It needs a well written contract which is properly managed, or the contractor will simply do what is stated in said contract. And no more.

The thing about all this is that it's nothing new and I'm damn sure this so called scope is just a rehash of what came out in 2012. I and a few other councillors met Chris Whyte, discussed the issues in detail, gave feedback on hotspots and tried to help. Then he reorganised. Guess what happened.

Anonymous said...

There was a B&K Times article asking for submissions.

Anonymous said...

Fly tippers dump a little in different sections of chosen roads - they also appear to have runners that dump bags of rubbish.

Anonymous said...

Soggy matresses and carpets, alongside other household waste and refurbishment rubble can often be seen in roads all over Brent. The Brent clean streets Ap is a joke as messages are frequently returned with a disceptive message reading 'job completed' when it hasn't. Can't help but wonder if Vieolia are claiming for work they haven't done!?

Alison Hopkins said...

Byron Road in Dollis Hill has been a fly tip hotspot for many many years. When we had our wonderful Streetcare officer, they'd check it pretty well every day, and that tended to keep the volume down. (I used to report it all the time as well, as a councillor.) Said officer was then TUPEd to Veolia, as were all their colleagues. They then found no jobs existed for them, so took redundancy.

I sat with Chris Whyte in 2012 and we went over a spreadsheet I'd prepared in great detail of that hotspots and all the others. Many promises were made.

Today, I drove down Byron Road. A fridge freezer, three mattresses and six black sacks of God knows what. There's a pile of rubble at the A5 end of my road, too.

Wonder how long they'll stayy there. :(

Meg Howarth said...

Wonder how many, if any, BTL landlords are involved in fly-tipping.
I'll be walking the length of Lonsdale Avenue four times this week, ditto next. Think I'll forewarn Veolia as well as council without giving them any date/time co-ordinates. Fun to see what, if anything, improves.