Classification: OFFICIAL
Dear Cllr Ioannou,
Thank you for your recent enquiry about the state of Southgate Ward.
The Waste Enforcement Team has informed me that weekly inspections are carried out of Crown Lane and the surrounding area by Waste Enforcement Officer, XXXXX.
Any waste found is inspected for evidence and formal enforcement action taken where sufficient evidence allows. Recently, XXXX has been paying particular attention to the area at the rear of the old Maze Inn, on Crown Lane and Ashfield Parade, due to an increase in the number of commercial premises placing black sacks of waste out illegally.
Businesses in Southgate (specifically Chase Side, Ashfield Parade, Crown Lane, Southgate Circus, Tudor Parade and High Street) have previously been made aware of their responsibilities in relation to their commercial waste, with trade waste investigations having been conducted by the Commercial Compliance officers within the last 18 months to ensure all businesses within the locality have arrangements in place. XXXX liaises with the litter wardens, who also visit Crown Lane and surrounding areas three times a week and inspect black sacks for evidence. The heat map below shows how many Fixed Penalty Notices have been issued by the litter wardens in Chase Side, Crown Lane and Ashfield Parade for fly-tipping offences within the last month
The rear of Ashfield Parade is private land and is cleared routinely by the managing agent. XXXX works closely with the agent to obtain evidence, allowing for investigation and often formal enforcement for fly-tipping offences by the residential bins.
Black sacks deposited next to the litter bin on Crown Lane will be investigated as fly-tipping, however investigations are ongoing regarding presentation of commercial waste by businesses in both Crown Lane and Ashfield Parade. XXXXX will be issuing notices to businesses in due course. Once sacks are inspected for evidence, they are referred to the Street Cleansing team for removal.
Street Cleansing are responsible for the removal of flytipping on the public highway only. They have had additional flytip clearance teams working across the borough during the period of the pandemic as we recognised that being at home, people produced more rubbish.
Some of these extra resources are still in place now, this enables them to visit most public highways within the Borough on a daily basis Monday to Friday, with one team at the weekend to cover emergency fly tip reports. Their teams try to look for evidence in the rubbish when they see that it is likely and if found, they will send photographs to the area Waste Enforcement Officer to take the appropriate action whilst still removing the dumped waste.
I hope this answers your enquiry.
Kind Regards