Minutes

Councillor Howells asked:

In light of the recent report concerning the fly-tipping issues in Newport, what proactive steps does the Cabinet Member propose to do to reduce these levels and is one of those options being considered a review of the booking system at Newport Household recycling centre?

Councillor Forsey responded:

The increase in cases reported is just a consequence of the increased activity carried out by the Council teams to tackle fly-tipping. The cabinet invested in a second dedicated fly tipping response team, and there have been increased action and enforcement against fly-tipping - which has led to a higher frequency of incidents being proactively detected and reported.

We have also encouraged residents to report fly-tipping to us through our website and My Newport app which helps us to remove it faster.

As a result, the council has recorded the second highest number of successful prosecutions against fly-tippers in Wales during this period, whilst providing an average response time of under 1.5 days.

We will continue to take action against anyone caught fly-tipping in our city and work proactively with our partners to discourage this type of behaviour; this will include close work with the network of volunteers, partnership work with social registered landlords and other organisations and direct interventions and enforcement action.

There is no evidence to link the booking system at Newport Household recycling centre to an increase in fly-tipping.

The booking system has brought many benefits in a number of areas that traditionally posed a problem on site and that impacted on safety, performance and customer satisfaction. It was also resulted in improved recycling performance and the Council being awarded HWRC site of the year last year. A similar system is now used in most councils in Wales.