01 July Aug 2021[19864] FLYTIPPING
Fly tipping … and how you can help … or … Your Parish needs you !
I think we would all agree that fly tipping is a blight on our beautiful countryside. Living close to a large town such as Luton, during lockdown with the rubbish tips closed only makes matters worse. According to John Marshall the Community Safety Team Leader for NHDC who is responsible for investigating this problem – Incidents of fly tipping have increased by over 74% in the last year. For successful prosecutions of this criminal behaviour John’s team need evidence. They can inspect the rubbish dumped for clues to the identity of people involved but it is rare for people to be caught in the act by the Police.
Although successful prosecutions have been increasing over the past couple of years. More often than not, it is the unsuspecting householder who has paid someone to take away their rubbish. They, like most of us do not ask for evidence of a waste carriers licence before handing over their money and they assume it will be disposed of responsibly.
The Parish Council with John and his team at NHDC have agreed to start an initiative to try to combat this problem which affects us all. With the significant increase in the number of offences and no extra resources, John’s team could use our help and we believe the residents of the Parish would be willing to assist, especially if it reduces or even possibly eradicates the problem in the future.
What they need is intelligence from the local community and possibly evidence if we can provide it. However, a word of warning before you go on the rampage with your mobile phone cameras, these people can get violent, so do not confront them and if in doubt – run away.
Following our discussions here are some suggestions of how you can help.
Reporting an incident
So as not to further stretch John and his team’s limited resources, we would encourage you not to keep reporting the same incident or repeatedly contacting John’s team to organise the rubbish to be removed. John’s team are responsible for investigating the incident and trying to catch those responsible. The removal of the rubbish has been outsourced to URBASER (0800 328 6023)
Get a precise location – this saves time for all concerned in finding the incident.
Lilly bottom is a long road and it can take a while to find an incident, so a good way to do this is to use the app what3words.com which has split the world up into 3m squares located by 3 words, for example the Offley Village Hall is located at boardroom.snoozing.instead
Take pictures of the incident
Don’t move anything – you are tampering with evidence Take 2 / 3 pictures Showing the whole of the fly tip and the area where it is. A closer photo of the rubbish. Close ups of any obvious evidence – an address label on a box, but this is John’s team’s job, so please don’t rummage around to get pictures.
Report the incident
Visit the NHDC Portal www.north-herts.gov.uk and Click on “Report a Problem”
URBASER 0800 328 6023 – is responsible for removing the rubbish. If the fly tip has not been removed after a couple of days, feel free to call URBASER again.
Supplying Evidence or intelligence about a fly tip
The County Council have some mobile cameras which can be deployed at hotspots, but they don’t have many for the whole of North Herts. Which is where we the community can help.
If we are able to provide John’s team with evidence, we can help them catch these people and prosecute them. What they are asking for is the following to be emailed to john.marshall@north-herts.gov.uk
CCTV camera / Dashcam / Mobile Phone footage can be used as evidence in court.
The CCTV cameras must be on private land.
Dashcam footage is really useful as it gives the time and effectively a location as well.
Reports on Suspicious vehicles
Pictures of the vehicle, the number plate, even a telephone number or company name from the side of the van.
Other intelligence
Flyers / adverts offering cheap waste removal.
Reports of people knocking on the door offering such services.
The intelligence provided by us can help catch the offenders and you might provide the golden nugget of information which leads to one of these criminals getting prosecuted.
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