Parish Council Fires Broadside To Local Authorities Over Fly-tipping Concerns

Published on: 5 Sep, 2016
Updated on: 5 Sep, 2016

Worplesdon Parish Council (WPC) is hitting out over fly-tipping in its area. It fears the introduction of charges by Surrey County Council (SCC) for the disposal of certain non-household items will lead to further waste being illegally dumped and the parish council being left to foot the clear-up bill.

It has written an open letter to Cllr Mike Goodman (Con, Bagshot, Windlesham and Chobham), Surrey County Council’s cabinet member responsible for environment and planning matters.

The letter contains details of an issue the parish council has with Guildford Borough Council (GBC). WPC says the borough council failed to respond over fly-tipping by a group of travellers on Pitch Place Green, and claimed waste material dumped in a watercourse in Wood Street Village, is not the borough council’s responsibility to remove.

Rubbish dumped in a watercouse in Wood Street Village.

The parish council’s open letter to Cllr Goodman begins by quoting the county council’s fly-tipping strategy, that states: “Local authorities and other ‘duty bodies’ have a responsibility in respect of dealing with fly-tipping, which varies depending on the circumstances. However, if waste is dumped on private land, it is the responsibility of the landowner to remove and dispose at a cost to them. The powers for enforcement in Surrey lie with the Environment Agency and District and Borough Councils.”

The parish council notes in its letter that at the end of June a group of travellers set up on Pitch Place Green for three nights. The resultant fly-tipping cost the parish council £530 plus VAT to remove.

WPC wrote: “A great deal of written evidence about the travellers who had fly-tipped on the green was hand-delivered to GBC’s Woking Road Depot for the attention of their Enforcement Officer. This included bank statements and numerous other documents including court-related documents. No response has yet been received, despite follow up phone calls and an email. Presumably waste dumped on residents’ drives will have to be removed at the cost of the individual residents, being private land.

“Guildford Borough Council has informed us that the washing machines and other waste being dumped into an ordinary watercourse behind Wildfield Close, Wood Street Village is not their responsibility to remove. No doubt the parish council will be expected to remove and pay for the disposal of this waste and to resolve the subsequent flooding issues that will occur.”

The result of ly-tipping in Wood Street Village.

The letter continues to criticises the SCC’s strategy over fly-tipping and what it believes will be consequences of the new charges introduced on September 1 at its community recycling centres: “The parish council believes the ‘vision’ of the county council’s fly-tipping strategy is exactly that, a vision – ‘something seen in the imagination or a dream’.

“A strategy should contain purpose! In reality, the cost of fly-tipping will fall to local residents, Surrey Wildlife Trust and parish and town councils. Once the reality of CRC [community recycling centre] charges starts to kick in, this problem is liable to escalate rapidly and will undoubtedly blight the lives of local residents even further.”

Adding even more of its fears, the parish council’s letter continues: “Worplesdon no longer has its own police officer and the PCSO [police community support officer] is never seen. Guildford Borough Council appears to lack the staff resources to deal with enforcement issues and the costs of the parish council and the [Surrey] Wildlife Trust are already increasing. The cost of removing fly-tipping from private land will be a hidden cost, that will distort the true cost of fly-tipping and the resultant ‘savings’ of the new charge system. Whilst charging for non-household waste may reduce SCC’s budget – removing fly-tipping from public land will result in additional costs to the borough councils – all of which is tax payers’ money.

“Worplesdon Parish Council therefore asks you, and your colleagues, to re-consider the proposed CRC charges, which the parish council believes will have significant unintended consequences. Ultimately, residents have the power to act via the ballot box. With the county council elections less than a year away there is time for residents to register their protest against this decision.”

Cllr Matt Furniss.

In reply, Guildford Borough Council’s lead councillor for Infrastructure, Cllr Matt Furniss (Con, Christchurch) said: “Guildford Borough Council dealt with 1,151 fly-tipping incidents in 2015-16, involving 502 tonnes of material that cost £94,461 to remove and we encourage everyone to dispose of their waste in the right way.

“The council is only responsible for dealing with any fly-tipping on our own land or land that we have specific responsibility for. Other public or private landowners must remove and pay to dispose of material that is fly-tipped on their land. Although we don’t perform specific enforcement for non-council land, we will contact Worplesdon Parish Council to discuss their concerns.”

Cllr Susan Parker.

Guildford Borough Councillor Susan Parker (Guildford Greenbelt Group, Send), said: We are concerned that the higher charges for waste will lead to more fly tipping, and that it will transfer responsibility for waste from Surrey County Council to landowners or district councils.

“We do need to waste less and recycle more. We do not want a throwaway economy, but high charges for waste disposal are a very poor mechanism for achieving this. We need  much more access to free recycling and opportunities for reuse and this should have come first. This blunt instrument will have negative impacts which must be reconsidered.”

Surrey County Councillor, Fiona White (Lib Dem, Guildford West), said: “When the county council brought in the charges at the Community Recycling Centres, Surrey Lib Dems warned that it would result in even more fly-tipping.

“It is clear that Surrey residents think the charges are a bad idea but the Conservative cabinet have still gone ahead.

Cllr Fiona White.

“I had to take some stones from an old rockery to Slyfield at the weekend and the process of stopping cars, questioning drivers, inspecting the load and then writing a ‘ticket’ for disposing of my one container took much longer than the previous drive-through arrangement.

“People were already commenting that they believed that rubbish would be dumped elsewhere to avoid the queues.

“It is all very well for Surrey to have a fly-tipping policy but unless the people responsible can be identified and the cost recovered from them, it will still fall on either local residents through taxes or private landowners who have been unlucky enough to have rubbish dumped on their land.

“It is a thoroughly bad policy which I and my colleagues will continue to oppose.”

Surrey County Councillor Mike Goodman was invited to comment, but so far has not replied.

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