Fly-Tipping at Brent Civic Centre Tonight - Meeting at 7pm

There is a public meeting this evening on fly-tipping at Brent Civic Centre (Boardroom) 7pm-8.30pm before the Scrutiny CommitteeTask Group reports on the problem.

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?

Let Cllr Stopp know how fly-tipping affects you and what Brent should do about it

Cllr Sam Stopp (Wembley Central) has asked me to let Wembley Matters readers know that he is to head up a Scrutiny Committee Task Force on fly-tipping which will report back in November.

A key facet of the project will be engaging residents from across Brent to understand the impact of fly-tipping on their lives and how they would like to see the Council address it.

Residents can have input by emailing Cllr Stopp at

--> cllr.sam.stopp@brent.gov.uk 
He will be happy to set up individual meetings with interested people.

 As background here is Brent Council's response to an FoI request (June 2015) LINK


1. Please could you tell me the number of fly-tipping incidents that have been
reported to the London Borough of Brent for the following date periods, i.e.
March 2014 - May 2015
 
16,077 incidents of fly tipping were reported from March 2014 to May 2015 

2. Please can you inform me of the number of Fixed Penalty Notices that have
been given out in the London Borough of Brent for fly-tipping for the following
date periods, i.e. March 2014 - May 2015
 
There is no fixed penalty notice relating to fly tipping. In a number of cases Brent
officers use a littering fixed penalty notice for what could be deemed low level fly
tipping, but it is not possible to separate these cases from other littering cases. 

3. Please can you inform me of the number of successful convictions secured
for fly-tipping in the London Borough of Brent for the following date periods,
i.e. March 2014 - May 2015 
 
Brent Council had ten successful prosecutions for fly tipping between March 2014
and May 2015. 

4. Please can you inform me of the cost for cleaning up fly-tipping in the 
 
Fly tipping clearance is carried out by our contractor Veolia as part of the Public
Realm contract. This contract includes refuse and recycling collections, street
cleansing, grounds maintenance and burials and due to the structure of the contract
there is no separate cost for the clearance of fly tips.

The Environment Agency ‘flycapture’ database uses estimations to predict fly tip
clearance costs. Using these estimations, Brent costs for March 2014 to May 2015
were circa £700,000.

Wembly Central petition Brent Council for more action on rubbish and flytipping

The Green Party and Brent Fightback long ago forecast dirty streets LINK  as a result of cuts to street cleaning and other services and the decision to make the contractor Veolia responsible for monitoring its own performance.  More recently I have also had comments regarding the maintenance of parks which is also part of Veolia's empire.  As a result of the Veolia taking over Brent's Public Realm the Environment Department of the Council has been severely cut LINK.

Wembley Central residents have now launched a public online petition to Brent Council and Muhammed Butt calling for action LINK

The petition reads:
 

--> We the undersigned petition Brent Council to resolve the issue of unacceptable amounts of rubbish being dumped on our streets.  The dumped rubbish is anti-social, it causes potential health hazards by attracting rats and other vermin to our streets and it affects the well-being of responsible residents, whilst making the area unwelcoming to visitors.

We call on Brent Council to implement the following 6 point plan to clean up Wembley Central:

1.      We call on Brent Council to put in place measures which prevent rubbish being dumped on our streets and to fully publicise what these measures are.

2.      We call on Brent Council to strongly enforce existing laws and regulations against those who litter, those who dump rubbish/fly-tip and those who do not manage their waste properly on private land.

3.      We call on Brent Council to raise awareness of this problem, stressing that it will no longer be tolerated, through an education program including posters and leafleting, whilst engaging with local landlords, businesses, schools, colleges and places of worship.

4.      We call on Brent Council to respond to genuine complaints from residents in a timely and respectful manner.

5.      We call on Brent Council to pro-actively combat the effects of recent multi-occupancy housing on the existing local community.  Each landlord licence would generate £400 per property.  This income must be invested to regulate and enforce regulations.

6.      We call on Brent Council to issue financial penalties against Veolia where the service fails to meet the required standard.

For too long the Council have ignored our complaints about rubbish in our area and they need to take immediate and long term action to solve this problem.

On the petition sight Cllr Sam Stopp (Labour, Brent Central) writes:

The cleanliness of our streets is the measure of our community spirit.

To rebuild community spirit, we must first remove the blight of dumping from our streets.

Brent recycling and library visit rates fail to meet target

The Brent Council Performance Review report for the first quarter of 2013-14 gives several areas a red rating using the RAG (Red, Amber, Green) traffic light system. Red indicates targets are not being met and Amber a danger that they will not be met.

The volume of residual waste per household is a key measure both environmentally and financially (landfill tax). Currently the year to date total  is 119.7kg per household against a target of 89.

The percentage of household waste being sent for recycling is 42% against a target of 55.6%

Tonnes of waste being sent to recycling is 16,313 against a target of 13,110

These figures contribute to a forecast overspend in recycling and waste of £226,000  Veolia currently hold the contract. Brent Executive on October 14th will choose between Veolia and Enterprise for the new Public Realm Contract to run from 2014.

It is in the area of inspections and investigations for fly-tipping that the discrepancy is most marked with 330 against a target of 1,000.

The figures for the number of streets falling below expected cleanliness measures are not yet available.

Elsewhere the number of library visits per 1,000 of population is 1.150 against a target of 1,215 and the percentage of Brent population who are active library users is 20% against a target of 22%.

Children and Families had a target of zero for secondary and primary schools judged Inadequate by Ofsted  but the figures are respectively 2 and 4.

The reports go to the One Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday 9th October LINK

Fly-tipping is hard work compared with ringing for a bulky collection

Barn Hill pond

I took advantage of the 'lighter shade of grey' skies and temporary cessation of rain this morning for a brisk walk around the perimeter of Fryent Country Park.

The park is waterlogged at present with a number of temporary streams and ponds. In contrast with the Spring the ponds are full which bodes well for a better year for amphibians in 2013.

Barn Hill Conservation Group LINK who do so much to conserve and enhance the park have picked up  320 large black bags of litter as well as bigger items since January this year.  It never ceases to amaze me what lengths people go to in order to dump rubbish.

This morning in the field below the pedestrian bridge to Shakespeare Drive a huge suitcase had been dumped into the hedgerow.  This would have required parking a car by Michael Sobell Primary School, trundling the case up the tarmacked  slope to the bridge, down the steep grassy slope on the other side and then bumping it across the meadow. The case had been opened and the contents scattered across the grass. This included dozens of pairs of trainers, a Gok Wan fashion book, a guide to embroidery, an exercise book of poetry  and items of clothing.

The clothing could have been bagged and left out with the recycling, the shoes at one of the street side collection banks (the nearest is on the corner of Valley Drive/Kingsbury Road) and the books donated to a charity shop or one of the community libraries. I took advantage of the sunshine on New Year's Day to clear the dump.

The recent figures on the big rise in private rental accommodation does perhaps point to one of the reasons for the increase in fly-tipping. With tenancies changing frequently new tenants throw out stuff left by the old tenants and these are frequently left in front gardens or by the road side. This accounts for the number of mattresses scattered throughout the borough.

One idea I would like the council to consider is issuing leaflets to Letting Agents to go to  new tenants about the recycling services and particularly bulky collections. It would be helpful if this could be translated into Eastern European languages and any others felt appropriate.

Here is a reminder about what can be picked up through the bulky collection service:

Item	Such as	Items must be
Furniture-plastic, wooden or metal	Beds, mattresses and bedframes, sofas, tables (larger tables may count as 2 or more items due to their size), wardrobes, armchairs and chairs.	Small enough to be carried and loaded on to a vehicle by no more than two workers
Flooring	Linoleum and floor tiles	Bagged or bundled. Wooden flooring or ceramic tiles are not accepted.
Metal	Metal filing cabinets less than 40kg and fire guards.
Carpets		Manageable by two people, otherwise it must be cut into smaller sections, rolled and tied. Each section counts as a separate item. Underlay is also classed as a separate item.
Large electrical goods	Washing machines, cookers, microwaves, fridges, freezers, dishwashers, dryers and vacuum cleaners.
Small electrical item	TVs, monitors, Hi-Fi systems and radios
Glass or mirrors	Glass top table, mirrored parts of doors or cabinets and fish tanks.	Wrapped in a safe and secure manne

Brent forms Waste Warriors team to beat fly-tippers

Following an increaser in fly-tipping this year Brent Council is to create a 'Environmental Crime Prevention Team' to tackle graffiti and fly-tipping. There will be a refreshed focus on waste enforcement, dealing particularly with fly-tipping and business waste.

A report going before the One Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee on December 5th admits that one reason for the increase in fly-tipping is the 'council's new household waste collection arrangements that restrict the volume of waste that is collected'.

The council no longer collects additional sacks that are left next to the bins. They say 'this has led to residents dumping excess/uncollected waste on footpaths and near litter bins in some areas'.

A second reason is to do with the street cleansing cuts introduced last year. The report says that less frequent sweeps mean items are left for longer and more likely to be reported.

A third reason is increased commercial waste disposal charges which has led to 'dumping by unscrupulous trades who wish to avoid these charges'. The report notes that commercial waste disposal cots rise each year and 'can be particularly burdensome' for small and medium-sized businesses in difficult economic times.

If the 'no side collection' rule is causing more fly-tipping there is likely to be pressure from some quarters for this rule to be relaxed. 

These impacts were predicted by campaigners at the time the new recycling system and street cleaning cuts were introduced last year.

The immediate impact of the £2m cut in street cleansing has been addressed through various measures including paying particular attention to known problem areas and 'bespoke' arrangements around very difficult areas such as Harlesden town centre. Veolia have now introduced a 'recycling pick-up of waste dumped in town centres which ensures a second additional early morning clearance in those areas.  A concerted anti-litter campaign is being considered.

On a more optimistic note  the council claim that the measures they have taken to increase recycling have resulted in an average of 45% for 2012-13 compared with 32% in the same period last year. The target is 60%.

Council report confirms Brent streets are dirtier but landfill reduced

 A council report LINK confirms that despite improvements in recycling rates and the amount of waste going to landfill, that Brent streets are dirtier than a year ago.

In October last year the council made the following changes in street cleansing:

• Reduced frequency of sweeping from 2 to 1 weekly in zone 5
• Reduced frequency of sweeping from 3 times per day to twice in zone 2
• Reduced frequency of sweeping in industrial areas from 7 to 2 weekly
• Removal of weekend afternoon shift
• Reduced weekday morning mechanical sweeping
• Reduced weekend morning cleansing.

The report admits:

The cleansing reductions led to deterioration in some areas.

Compared to 2010/11:

• • The number of streets showing a less than acceptable level of litter increased by 5 percentage points.
• • The number of streets showing a less than acceptable level of detritus increased by 6 percentage points 

Although Brent Council has focused on leafleting as a potential cause of litter during the Olympics (the statutory notices for the licensing scheme are currently posted around the borough) it is clear that there is a residual problem as a consequence of the cuts and what seems to me an increase in fly-tipping and street corner depositing of surplus residential 'grey bin' waste.  At the same time the council has cut the Streetwatchers Scheme through which local residents informed Streetcare of fly-tipping and uncollected waste.

The report concludes:

The consequence of less frequent cleansing in some areas is that streets are less tidy. Officers have embarked on a programme of engagement with councillors and community groups to understand local concerns and to develop solutions.

Would one solution be the reintroduction of more frequent street cleaning and the reinstatement of the Streetwatchers scheme? It is important that the council gets this right before the waste services contract goes out to tender next year.

The news is better on recycling although it would be useful to know the post-process figures as well as those given on pick-up rates from the blue bins. How much of the material in blue bins is ultimately recycled and how much after sorting still goes into landfill as the result of contamination or the inclusion of non-recyclables in the blue bins?

The council puts forward plans to increase the amount of waste recycled or composted from the present 41% to 52%:

High – High Output (+8 percentage points)

1. Improve recycling of collected bulky waste.

2. Maximise output from food waste collections by providing caddy liners/replacement caddies.

3. Bid for funding to introduce food waste collections at flats

4. Replace/remove excess landfill bins.

5. Introduce alternate weekly collections at appropriate flats.

6. Extend recycling provision at flats above shops.

7. Review and improve resident engagement programme.

8. Advertise availability of additional blue-topped bins.

9. Comprehensive communications plan for 2012/13, with more frequent reissue of collection calendar and service information.

Medium – High Input, Less Output (+3 percentage points)

10. Review and improve bring bank network.

11. Identify options for recycling street cleansing waste.

12. Remove trade waste from street cleansing waste.

13. Install in-cab devices to report non-collection issues.

14. Re-use shops / third sector collections

Low – Low Output (+0.5 percentage points)

15. Recycle waste collected at events.

16. Enhanced waste reduction initiatives – real nappies, junk mail, home

composting.

17. Investigate a borough-wide recycling incentive scheme.

18. Collect food waste from schools.

19. Take advantage of pan-London textile framework.

20. Dedicated Olympic recycling programme for the games period in August.

21. Provide collection points for small electronic equipment.

22. Improve collection arrangements and range of materials at Re-use and Recycling centre.

Fly-tipping on increase

There appears to have been an increase in incidents of fly-tipping recently. It is unclear why this is although there have been suggestions that it is linked to fortnightly collections of residual waste and bins being full. This may account for some of them but much of it seems to be linked to builder's rubbish and house clearances. Two huge dumps near Willesden New Cemetery were left by two large lorries in the early hours.

This is what I saw today while walking from my home near Barn Hill to Birchen Grove and back

Barn Hill, HA9

Deanscroft Avenue, NW9

Old Church Lane, NW9

Birchen Grove, NW9

Footpath behind St Andrew's Church, NW9

              

   Dunster Drive, NW9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old St Andrew's footpath cleared

Last month I highlighted the fly-tipping at Old St Andrew's Church Yard in Kingsbury LINK. The main dumping was on the public footpath leading from the church yard to St Andrew's Road.

I recently bumped into the local street sweeper and he told me that his supervisor had asked him to clean up the path in addition to his normal work when he had time.

I was delighted today to see that most of the bulky fly-tipping had been removed, including toys that appeared to have been dumped over the fence of the nursery.  I had sent links to my posting to Streetcare and the vicar of St Andrew's and perhaps that had some impact.

There are still some discarded carrier bags and beer cans which appear to be dumped by people who use the ancient church yard for drinking sessions, but it is good to see some improvement.

Dumping spoils Brent heritage site

Dumping next to the footpath

I bumped into Cllr Ann John, leader of Brent Council and Muhammed Butt, deputy leader and a host of Labour supporters  doing a walk-about meeting residents in Welsh Harp ward last Sunday.

I hope some of the residents raised the issue of fly-tipping on the footpath leading from St Andrew's Road through to old St Andrew's churchyard and Old Church Lane. Old St Andrew's church is the only Grade 1 listed building in Brent and the ancient churchyard has been cleaned up by Community Payback LINK

As I've mentioned before as budget cuts bite  there is reluctance to take responsibility for areas which do not clearly come under council department remits and this seems to be one of them. The footpath is a public right of way but is not actually on a street.  Some of the dumping seems to be the result of open air drinking in the old churchyard, evidenced by orange Sainsbury's carrier bags and discarded beer cans and spirit bottles. As always, once a dump remains uncleared more rubbish accumulates.

Other items seem to be redundant toys that appear to have been dumped over the fence of the privately run St Andrew's Nursery which is situated between the new St Andrew's church and the footpath:

Toys apparently dumped over the nursery fence

 It would be good news if the church, nursery and council got together and cleaned up the area.

NEASDEN'S FLY-TIPPED MOUNTAIN

Shahrar Ali, Brent Green Party spokesperson for Environment and Planning has called attention to a mountain of rubbish deposited behind pubs, shops and restaurants on Neasden Shopping Precinct which provides an ideal habitat for rats. He said, "Whilst out campaigning in Neasden this Sunday, the Green Party came across the most appalling mountain of waste. Refuse bags, ma tresses and whole beds were literally piled up above head height against a wall in the alley behind Neasden shopping parade. There was a clear whiff of rotting matter and it simply looked like this mountain had been piling up for weeks."

Shahrar continued, "We have reported this discovery and sent photographs to both Brent's streetcare division and environmental health department for immediate action. It is dispiriting to find that whilst the local shopping parade has seen a revival, with new grocers, a post office and revamped library centre, such neglect is apparent just round the corner."

Shahrar said, "We have spoken to traders who have acknowledged the dumping stretches back for weeks. Brent Green Party will be monitoring the situation and looking at how the Council's collection policy may be contributing to the problem. However, the police may also need to be on the alert if environmental crimes are being committed."