Plans for a “very significant increase” in enforcement officers to tackle Sefton’s fly-tipping problems moved a step closer last night.
A full council meeting saw members vote to approve recommendations to make use of some of the existing £500,000 budget to tackle street scene problems to ramp up enforcement action.
The recommendations had previously been approved by cabinet after being put forward by a working group which examined the effectiveness of the council’s current enforcement strategy.
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Sefton Council only has two full time enforcement officers at present who are dedicated to dealing with the borough’s rubbish dumping problem.
Nearly 2,000 fixed penalty notices were issued for dumping in one year alone in Sefton.
In 2018/19 people littering in Dukes ward in Southport were issued with the most PCNs, with nearly half of all penalty notices issued in the borough in that ward – a total of 938 within the 12 month period.
It was noted that this was in part due to the higher level of enforcement officers out in Southport due to parking enforcement duties.
The working group reported that the average cost of fly-tipping to the council was £400 per incident, with some cases costing the borough over £1,000 to clear.
Recommending a “very significant increase” in enforcement officers to send out a clear message that fly tipping and dumping would not be tolerated, the working group also recommended a “high profile” publicity campaign to make residents aware of the council’s renewed enforcement focus.
Another measure proposed was to investigate whether private landlords could be sanctioned via the Selective Licensing Scheme for tenants’ anti-social behaviour in littering and dumping in rear entries.
Plans to contact all registered landlords to remind them of their responsibilities in ensuring litter was reported and responded to were also proposed.
At the full council meeting held at Aintree Racecourse, the recommendations were approved by councillors and will now be moved forward.
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