Community Committee 25 th January Deputy Chief Executive, Velia Coffey.

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1 Community Committee 25 th January 2017 Subject: Director/Head of Service: Cleaner Streets and Enforcement Deputy Chief Executive, Velia Coffey. Decision Issues: These matters are within the authority of the Committee. Classification: CCC Ward(s): Summary: This report is open to the public. All Since the appointment of the area based cleaner streets/litter liaison councillors there has been good progress in improving cleanliness in the district. Actions fall into one or more themes action to remove the environmental nuisance, enforcement action, action to harness community goodwill and ongoing campaigning and communications to encourage behaviour change. The activity and action supported by councillors is set out in this report and is already in place, scheduled for the early 2017 or dependent on growth in the council's 17/18 budget. A new proposal concerning parking enforcement is also included. To resolve: that: i) officers implement the activity set out in the report ii) ongoing liaison by the lead councillors with community representatives is supported iii) increased levels of enforcement are supported and extended to parking enforcement and reflected in a new Enforcement Policy. Next stage in process: Officers implement the actions and activity reported. SUPPORTING INFORMATION 1. Introduction At its meeting in October the committee agreed a number of actions to improve the council's response to littering, graffiti, fly tipping and waste. This report advises the committee of the progress made and of planned action, some of which is subject to growth in the 2017/18 budget. The increasing desire expressed by councillors and the community to take strong enforcement action against the perpetrators of environment crime and

2 anti-social behaviour is taken account of and will lead to a review of the council's Enforcement Policy and to a consistent approach across environment and parking enforcement. 2. Detail Litter and street cleansing Resident groups and associations had reported that litter was becoming a more serious issue across the district and in particular there were concerns about litter in areas with high levels of Houses in Multiple Occupation, litter on high speed roads and litter as a result of waste collection services. High speed roads following suspension of works because of health and safety concerns, the Highways England contractor is now working effectively with Serco and the twice yearly cleaning programme is up to date. Litter in lay-bys has reduced with the introduction of new large aperture litter bins in strategic lay-bys to deal with the amount of litter and side waste left by lorry drivers and their overnight parking. Forty larger 180 litre (standard ones are 140 litres) bins costing 14,000 have been placed in lay-bys and other high demand areas. Litter bins and street cleansing - there are almost 1,500 litter bins across the district and all of the coastal bins have now been replaced with bins with lids to deter seagull related litter. Large 1,100 litre roll top bins have also been located in busy beach locations and new lidded bins have been introduced in Canterbury city centre, to better capture cigarette butts. Serco are required to ensure litter bins have at least 20 per cent capacity at all times and in the main they are meeting this standard. Four new big belly bins will be piloted in 2017 to assess suitability elsewhere in the district. These large bins let us know when they are nearly full and so can be emptied as and when necessary. Dog waste bins are being replaced where appropriate with standard bins, although in areas of high dog presence, dog waste bins are retained. There has been 105,000 spent on litter bin improvements from existing budgets and contracts. Litter generated by Serco Last year there was an increase in the number of complaints and reports regarding litter created as a result of the waste or litter collection operation. This is either through litter collecting as a result of household waste collections (from the trucks or from the bins when being emptied) or from the aggregation of orange litter sacks as a result of litter bins being emptied and awaiting collection by a larger caged van. Litter as a result of waste collection is a known issue, and Serco usually follow up with street cleansing crews to collect litter when they know about problems. Sometimes crews are unaware litter has been left as it falls or is blown from the vehicle after the crew have moved on. If reported, Serco will prioritise collection by a

3 cleansing crew. Late last year issues were identified with the underbody of some recycling trucks where glass collection had eroded the base causing waste to fall through and this has now been rectified. Litter as a result of street cleansing activity is more difficult to deal with, and is usually the result of orange sacks being torn open by birds or individuals. Usually these sacks are only brought together at the beginning and end of the day, and so time left unattended is minimised. During the day, orange sacks should be stored in bunkers that are strategically located throughout the district s main urban and tourist areas. Where waste is strewn as a result of orange sack storage, the crews are expected to clean up before moving on. Enforcement more council employees have been trained and are issuing Fixed Penalty Notices for litter offences. This is in addition to those issued by the private company Kingdom. Over the coming months we are recruiting four additional council enforcement posts to enable better enforcement activity beyond the city/town centre areas. When the new employees are fully trained and in place, we expect the FPNs currently issued to increase significantly. Councillors also supported a new service that would collect small fly-tipped deposits and issue FPNs. During 2017/18 the licensing and enforcement team will increase from 7.25 to FTE (Full Time Equivalent) officers. In addition, contract monitoring officers are also being trained to issue FPNs. The increased complement of officers will enable the better tackling of all environment nuisance matters both enforceable and unenforceable. It will allow more of a focus on A-boards, as well as the new PSPO powers that will be implemented from April Community action - the litter liaison councillors have supported community groups in their areas to get help, information and advice to tackle local problems. Over 100 litter pickers have been issued to litter liaison councillors for groups in their areas. The Residents Litter Action Guide in Canterbury has been agreed and published. Bespoke guides for coastal and rural areas are imminent. A Clean for the Queen event was completed and a Canterbury Grot Spots Facebook page created to identify areas in need of attention. A new litter reporting/escalating has been created to help residents and residents associations differentiate between waste collection issues and litter issues. The new litter.su pp canterbur y. g ov.uk can be used for reporting issues, or seeking advice on how to help out in the community. Action to enable easier digital reporting is also to be finalised in the next three months. Promoting change - at a regional level, the Kent Resource Partnership is using the #LoveKent#HateLitter campaign to use nudge (behaviour change) techniques to deter people from littering and fly-tipping, explaining the social, financial and environmental consequences of actions. Work is also being done to develop a council campaign launching in the new financial year. Fly tipping Overall, urban centres account for two thirds of the fly-tipping occurrences, with almost 40

4 per cent being in the Canterbury urban areas. Fly-tipping is illegal and can result in a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) or fines of up to 50,000 and imprisonment. Unlike FPNs, the fines collected are not given to the council. Currently we are only able to remove fly-tipped material on public land unless there is permission in place from other landowners. We are investing more resources in removing fly tipping from significant areas of private land but resources are finite. Increasingly we are linking detection and enforcement action with removal. Cameras - Regulation of Investigatory Powers ( RIPA) allows for the use of hidden camera surveillance to collect evidence of fly-tipping by court application; for open surveillance, RIPA is not required. New cameras, running on batteries rather than mains power can be placed in more difficult to reach, fly-tipping hotspots. We have purchased six cameras to extend camera surveillance in regular/known hotspots. Investigation and removal of fly-tipping - to make the most effective use of new powers to issue 400 Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) charges, a 43,100 budget growth item has been included in the draft 2017/18 budget to enable the hire of a caged collection vehicle to attend fly-tipping sites with a fully trained additional Enforcement Officer. This officer will investigate the scene for evidence, and where possible, remove the fly-tipping. The value in this relates to case handling continuity, intelligence building, profile visibility, flexibility and speedy resolution. For hazardous material, or large amounts that one person is not capable of removing, the officer will follow the usual reporting route for Serco to remove. Steps are being taken to operate this service as soon as budget becomes available. An example of a fly tipping case we had recently provides an indication of the complexity of the work involved in dealing with cases. In late November 2016 a complaint was received about fly tipping in one of our rural areas. Officers attended the scene, took photographs and searched through the debris. They found the name and address of a person in Herne Bay. The officers called at the address and spoke to the occupants who gave details of a builder they had employed to remove their waste. Further patrols were carried out at the location that the first fly-tip had taken place and a second new case was discovered. In searching through the rubble an address was found for a company in Chatham. The officers made further enquiries, interviewed the builder from the first case and the company in Chatham from the second. In both cases they produced waste transfer notes showing that they had dealt with the same company based in east Kent. Officers identified the owner of the company and after a lengthy interview and further evidence gathering, reported him for the offence. Business as usual - our officers take part in both joint and Canterbury-specific operations on a regular basis. Last year, Operation Rattrap tackled illegal waste carriers. In addition, a joint operation with Thanet and Dover District Councils focused on cross border tippers (similar to Rattrap), and officers have tackled companies that have no waste contracts in place, issuing FPNs where appropriate. Graffiti Graffiti is an ongoing problem within the district, especially in inner urban areas where there

5 are high numbers of people at schools, colleges and universities. There is also substantial public infrastructure, from property to phone boxes, and bridges to coastal shelters. Thoroughfares, underpasses and alleyways are also targeted. There is still an issue between the differentiation of public and private property, and the processes involved in reporting and cleaning graffiti on property. Graffiti audits take place every three months in the city and surrounding areas. Graffiti has reduced by 70 per cent over the past 12 months. This is largely because of a faster clean up response by Serco when requested and work undertaken by the Canterbury BID contractors which is reflecting the move towards the zero tolerance/fast clean up approach. The BID ambassadors report graffiti and Serco arrange to remove it. The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 introduced the Community Protection Notice (CPN) replacing Litter Clearing Notices, Street Litter Clearing Notices and Graffiti/Defacement Removal Notices. CPN s have greater breadth and can be used to tackle a range of anti-social behaviour, including graffiti and are already being used. We can ensure that these powers are used to best effect as part of the package of measures to deal with the problem. We can compel businesses and utility companies to remove graffiti from buildings or structures in or on the road. This obliges the property owner to remove it within 28 days and if not the council may do so and charge the owner on a per square metre rate. We cannot clean graffiti from private property without the permission of the owner. Defacing surfaces with graffiti is an offence under the Criminal Damage Act It could also be prohibited with the introduction of the PSPO making it a fixed penalty matter. Catching offenders is difficult and prosecution is low. This is due to the locations and times that offences are conducted and the general furtiveness of offenders. Nevertheless one graffiti tag offender was caught last year due to tag identification and is awaiting prosecution. We are currently devising an operation in partnership with the police based on good practice elsewhere to increase the identification of offenders. Photos of tags are kept and these are investigated jointly by the police and the council, based on analysing the tag closely to gain more information such as the characteristics of the offender (e.g. age, gender), pattern of offending, such as whether the graffiti is spontaneous or planned, intermittent or regular, are offenders lone operators or part of a group and does drug and/or alcohol use contribute to the act? The underground pedestrian subways along the ring road circling Canterbury city are particularly high density spots for graffiti. To combat this, CCTV cameras are now in place and working in all subways and under regular monitoring. A deep clean, improved lighting and drainage have also been initiated. The council s draft budget for 2017/18 also includes growth for a one off additional graffiti resource of 21,000 for Serco to deliver an 18 month zero tolerance approach to removing graffiti from public and some private places. In the meantime the current budget of 30,000 is being fully utilised. Opportunities to increase enforcement and prosecution opportunities through the use of CCTV cameras and more enforcement officers are also planned. Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act also introduced the Public Space Protection Order. This is designed to make public spaces more welcoming by imposing

6 restrictions/requirements targeted at specific behaviours which might apply at certain times or in certain circumstances. The creation of PSPOs for this area is currently being consulted upon. There are three proposed PSPOs which will come into place in late spring 2017 at Canterbury city centre, the coast and for dog control throughout the district. Canterbury city and coastal PSPOs The conditions of the Canterbury City and Coastal PSPOs are the same and apply where a person: a) Refuses to stop drinking alcohol or hand over any containers (sealed or unsealed) which are believed to contain alcohol, when required to do so by an authorised officer in order to prevent public nuisance or disorder. b) Shouts, swears or acts in a manner as to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to any person within the Designated Area or on land adjacent to the Designated Area or to any person living nearby. c) Persistently begs. Persistently begging involves begging on more than one occasion and includes all passive and active methods used to receive alms. d) Urinates or defecates in a public place. This includes the doorway or alcove of any premises to which the public has direct or implied access. e) Graffiti, deface, fly post, affix any notice, picture or sign on any structure, object or surface e.g. underpasses, walls, trees, pavements, bridges, street furniture, signs etc, temporarily or permanently, without permission of the owner. f) Refuses to cease busking, or their street entertainment, when asked to do so by an authorised officer after being advised that they are not complying with the Guide to Busking in Canterbury, or subsequent relevant documentation or updated editions. g) Climbs onto or jumps from any building or structure owned, managed by or on behalf of the council without prior permission from the council. h) Trades as a pedlar and: Remains in any location for more than 10 minutes unless it is to complete a transaction, Locates themselves within 50 metres of their previous location, Returns to any location already occupied in the last three hours, Obstructs the highway or shop, commercial, business, residential etc entrances. Dog control a) Dog fouling - when asked, cannot demonstrate they have the appropriate means to pick up their dog s faeces, for example by carrying dog waste bags. b) Dog fouling - allows the dog to foul in a public place and then fails to remove the waste and dispose of it in an appropriate receptacle.

7 c) Keeping of dogs on leads - fails to keep the dog on a lead and under physical control by use of any combination of a lead, harness and muzzle at all times within restricted areas identified by this Order. d) Dog exclusion - takes the dog onto or allows the dog to enter or remain on restricted areas identified by this Order. Communications and promoting change Further activity to demonstrate what the council does to tackle environment nuisance is being undertaken, highlighting where action has been taken by our Enforcement officers and showcasing how we are managing the removal of litter/graffiti/fly-tipping in areas of concern. The aim is to reinforce the message that the council can and will take action and promote what that action involves types of penalty, how often applied, who applied to (name and shame model). This links in with the work to update and renew the council's Enforcement Policy and better reflect the tougher stance being taken. This communications work also includes campaigns, using techniques and messages to influence what people do, as well as acknowledging and rewarding those that help tackle issues in their community, raising the profile of groups and associations and understanding the impact they have in keeping areas clean. Parking enforcement Although not directly related to clean streets and better environmental issues we are suggesting that all council enforcement related officers take the same tougher approach to infringements and undertake more enforcement acts. Increased income would allow for more evening patrols, a greater presence in the larger villages, more school patrols and greater coverage of urban areas. A special recruitment drive to take on more officers will happen over the next two months. 3. Relevant Council Policy/Strategies/Budgetary Documents Corporate Plan Enforcement Policy Draft Revenue Budget 4. Consultation planned or undertaken The activity in this report is informed by the community and lead litter councillors. The draft budget is subject to a separate consultation. 5. Options available with reasons for suitability The activities set out on this report are already undertaken by the council through its officers or contractors. The report suggests a continuation of, or increase in activity to meet community concerns. The recommendations, if supported will enable the desired focus on the issues of concern to be maintained and complement the direct action the community is taking. The scope and range of activity can be scaled back, but the concerted effort and focus

8 that councillors and the community desire would be reduced and the impact lessened. 6. Reasons for supporting option recommended, with risk assessment The recommendations complement each other and together will drive sustainable improvements to the district s community. 7. Implications (a) Financial implications - the additional resources required to deliver some of the recommendation actions are subject to approval of the council's budget for 2017/18. Other actions are met from existing resources or an increase in income. (b) Legal implications - the enforcement actions are all in accordance with current regulation and law. The review of the Enforcement Policy will reflect current/new guidance. (c) Equalities - none identified Other implications (d) Staffing/resource - an increase in staffing is required to implement some of the proposed activity. (e) Crime and Disorder - this activity will promote the council's duties and responsibilities 8. Conclusions There has been progress on all the areas with councillors and the community - to accelerate this, further additional resources would be required. Contact Officer: Velia Coffey Job Title: Deputy Chief Executive Telephone: