DRAFT
LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY STRATEGY
Aims
This Strategy aims to achieve improvements in Local Environmental Quality across
the Borough of Allerdale, through effective partnership working, regulation,
education and enforcement.
Objectives
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To design and deliver environmental services that are in line with local needs
and aspirations
To use all available powers and duties in an appropriate manner.
To ensure that the principles of the national Enforcement Concordat are
applied to regulation and enforcement of the strategy.
To work effectively with other service providers and regulators to maximize
effectiveness and efficiency.
To provide clear guidance to the community on the Council management
plans for the delivery of the strategy.
To work with the community and obtain both their support and commitment in
the implementation of this strategy.
Outcomes
Residents, visitors to the area and local businesses show high levels of satisfaction
with the quality of the local environment
Reductions in crime and antisocial behaviour that lead to or stem from the
degradation of the local environment
Introduction
Local Environmental Quality (LEQ) has been a major theme for the Government over
the past few years. The term LEQ identified by Government refers to the activities,
which create or add to the quality of the area in which people live and hugely impacts
on the quality of their lives in general. We recognise that links exist between the state
of the local environment, anti-social behaviour, the fear of crime and health problems.
A MORI poll undertaken in 2003/04 ‘The Rising Prominence Of Liveability Or Are
We Condemned To A Life Of Grime?’placed clean streets third in a survey of what
makes an area a ‘good place to live’ behind low levels of crime and health services.
What people experience outside their front door impacts on their quality of life for
example if our streets and parks are dirty and neglected, litter mounts up, and there
are groups of teenagers hanging around with not enough to do, a person's satisfaction
with their quality of life is going to fall. The DEFRA guidelines on ‘envirocrime’
recommends public consultation be carried, in order to progress LEQ strategies it is
concluded that information from our customer surveys be used to demonstrate their
concerns and support for rapidly moving forward on this strategy.
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New powers under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 will help
Local Authorities deal with the minority who continue to litter, graffiti and fly-tip. A
comprehensive range of enforcement powers and duties include unauthorised
distribution of literature on designated land, dog control, waste (including flytipping), noise from dwellings and licensed premises, litter, graffiti, fly-posting, etc. A
balance however needs to be maintained between education, awareness raising,
managing public expectation and enforcement.
Department of Food and rural Affairs (Defra) recommends that authorities adopt a
local Environmental Quality Enforcement Strategy in order to promote better
enforcement in relation to the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005.
The Council to meet this recommendation has set out its Local Environmental Quality
Strategy to summarise how the authority as a whole will contribute to improving the
appearance of the district of Allerdale.
Scope
This Strategy covers areas of education and enforcement work affecting LEQ
including action on litter, graffiti, fly-posting, unauthorized distribution of literature
on designated land, dog control, and waste (including fly-tipping).
The principles and policies for taking effective enforcement action are set out in a
series of linked Enforcement Policies, which cover both general principles and more
detailed requirements where appropriate.
Achieving the Objectives
A balance between education, awareness raising, managing public perception and
enforcements will be maintained across the various areas in the interest of good
practices and high quality service delivery. All relevant officers will be given
adequate and appropriate training in support of the strategy in both policy and
procedures to achieve consistency in education and enforcement to hold up the
legislative requirements.
The Council will ensure that sufficient capacity is available to undertake education
and enforcement action on any offence within the remit of this strategy subject to:
Allocation of Resources
The primary resources for this strategy lie within the Environmental Services
Department within the Environment Group. The Environmental Warden Team leads
on the issues relating to the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environmental Act 2005,
particularly with dog control, litter, fly posting and fly tipping. There is a close liaison
with the local PCSOs (police community support offices), Waste, Recycling, Street
Cleaning, Ground Maintenance and the Parks and Opens Spaces teams.
The Environmental Warden Team action plan addresses the capacity issues in relation
to prosecution for offences and non-payment of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) served
on behalf of the Council by its own officers and other agencies in accordance with the
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Enforcement Policy principles and contributes to the overall vision and aims of the
council’s Corporate Improvement Plan.
Allerdale’s Performance to date
The principal objective measure of Local Environmental Quality is Best Value
Performance Indicator (BVPI) 199, which measures the cleanliness of streets and
open areas in terms of litter, detritus, grafitti and fly posting.
Allerdale’s performance is amongst the best in the country (insert scores etc) and
whilst the limitations of BVPI199 are recognised, it is essential that the Borough
maintains that level of performance as a prerequisite to achieving the more detailed
aims and objectives within the strategy.
The most important indicator of LEQ is resident satisfaction, as measured by the Best
Value User Satisfaction Survey. Currently 68% of residents are satisfied with the
cleanliness of the streets (top performing Councils achieve over 74% satisfaction) and
72% are satisfied with parks and Open Spaces (again top performers exceed 78%).
Prioritisation
The prioritisation areas for the delivery of the strategy are established from a recent
MORI survey of the citizens within the borough. The results for South Workington
can be taken as a proxy for the views of residents in other disadvantaged areas within
Allerdale.
Issue
Dog
fouling
Pavements
blocked by
parked cars
Rubbish
and litter
left lying
Noise
pollution
Vandalism,
graffiti etc
Neglected
or derelict
buildings
or land
Not a problem
Minor problem
Serious problem
Allerdale
South
Allerdale
South
Allerdale
South
Workington
Workington
Workington
16%
11%
49%
41%
29%
41%
46%
32%
31%
37%
18%
22%
27%
12%
53%
48%
15%
33%
51%
43%
33%
38%
9%
9%
46%
21%
21%
46%
9%
21%
62%
45%
24%
27%
6%
11%
The following are proposed priorities for action for education, encouragement and
enforcement:
Education
An inclusive approach to education and awareness in the community means
understanding the make-up, needs, interests and capacity of different groups in the
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community. Identifying and understanding the needs of groups will enable education
programmes to be designed that make it easier for people to engage with local
campaigns and awareness programmes in tackling the problems and by making the
education programme accessible and inclusive, the programme will enable the
removal of barriers by reaching out to groups that have been less engaged in the past.
The Environmental Wardens Management Action Plan will identify target groups
through a variety of areas from businesses, schools, voluntary sector, neighbourhood
forums, parish councils and community groups to name but a few, both in
engagement and in initiatives where community involvement is active and deliver an
education programme drawing from some basic principles, creating a foundation for
good practices and fostering the change towards engaging people in constructive
participation by giving them the opportunity to contribute ideas and suggestions.
We will work with schools to help educate children about the environment and
recycling, undertaking assemblies, action-on-litter days, action-on-waste days,
workshops, competitions, award schemes and other initiatives for schools within the
programme and encouraging children to think about how their actions can affect their
environment.
Good public exhibitions will raise the profile and will provide a strong visual element
during campaigns. Staffed exhibitions are resource-intensive and therefore the
exhibitions will be organised to coincide with events in a convenient locations in a bid
to maximize opportunities for public involvement.
The website can be accessed at any time that is convenient to users. A dedicated web
page on the Council’s website will be developed and include awareness and education
downloadable packs for events and campaigns. It will provide updated regular and
consistency messages from the service. An easy and speedy interactive feedback
process from members of the public will form the basis of follow ups from high
profile campaigns helping to minimises cost and to measure the impact. Further
development of the websites to encourage the website use will involve video clips to
highlight the problems caused by litter, flytipping, graffiti, dog fouling and cigarette
litter from the effects of smoking on the streets will be developed in line with the
educational programme.
Press notices are issued to publicise new legislation documents consultation in the
local newspapers as standard. Various meetings are attended to allow consistency of
the message, provide the public with opportunities to understand signify and debate
the main issues, raise their questions and concerns and encourage community
ownership.
A monitoring and evaluation program will be undertaken to collate information in
relation to the delivery and improvement of the programme through consultation and
feedback with the public arena and service areas within the authority. Considerable
staff time is needed to design and execute education programs by engaging the
community in a response to the evaluation process will enable an ethos where
influencing and enhancing the design guidelines for future campaigns aimed locally
can aim to reduce ‘envirocrime’ in all areas.
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Outcome:
• Campaigns and Education Programmes will be aimed to develop and
implement community involvement and public awareness-raising action
intended to tackle and monitor the issue of litter, flytipping, graffiti, dog
fouling and cigarette litter creating a sense of environmental responsibility.
Encourage
The Dogs trust teamed up with Allerdale Borough Council and are offering free pet
micro chipping, to residents within the borough who are in receipt of Benefits,
Working family Tax credits, Family Tax credits and Pensions, which normally costs
£10.
Dog mess is a frustrating problem and local people are really getting fed up with
irresponsible dog owners. Allerdale Borough Council continue to provide free poop
scoop bags to residents and visitors to the areas as well as anti fouling signs,
additional bins and bag dispensers have been placed around the borough to encourage
people to clean up after their dog.
On a day to day basis, when patrolling parks or streets, the Environmental Wardens
will stop and speak to members of the public with dogs, hand out "poop scoop", bags
and information packs and discuss responsible dog ownership.
The Environmental Wardens Action Plan will involve the investigation of ‘Dog
Watch Zones’ as an area for consultation and consideration to encourage responsible
dog owner ship involving members of the public. These involves targeting areas for
‘Dog Watch Zones’ and allowing the public to report repeated offences confidentially
so that Environmental Wardens can spend more time tackling fouling in the areas that
need it most.
Organised sponsored litter picks currently conducted within the borough are supplied
with free bags and litter picks. The waste is also collected from a designated point and
disposed of by the authority. Co-ordination and involvement will be a development
area within the Environmental Wardens Action Plan for 2007.
Enforcement
Dog Fouling:
Under the provisions of the Dogs (fouling of Land) Act 1996, it was made an offence
for dog owners to fail to clear up dog faeces on land to which the public have access,
and a FPN issued for the offence. The Dog Control Orders under Clean
Neighbourhoods and Environmental Act 2005 adopted by the authority continues to
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recognise the offence of failure to clear up dog faeces and the new FPN with locally
set penalty levels and discounts for early payments could be considered.
Litter:
Litter is a highly visible and a growing problem within the ‘envirocrime’ arena. A
significant part of the street cleaning budget is spent on sweeping litter and litter
picking. This is recognised as a potential growth area from 1st July 2007 in
conjunction with the smoking ban in enclosed public places. It is proposed that the
work already undertaken by our Partnership with FOCSA services will have a
continued close liaison with the Environmental Warden Team and that the offence
under Clean Neighbourhoods and Environmental Act 2005 adopted by the authority
continues with FPN with locally set penalty levels and discount for early payments be
considered.
Fly tipping:
Enforcement on fly-tipping already forms part of the work carried out by the
Environmental Services team and although no local FPN is available the Government
penalty of a maximum fine is £ 000000000. It is proposed that the work already
undertaken by our Partnership with FOCSA services will have a continued close
liaison with the Environmental Warden Team in relation to recording and monitoring
of problem areas.
Failure of Businesses to produce authority (Waste Transfer Notice):
Environmental Protection Act 1990 section 34 legal ‘Duty of Care’, requires business
to obtain and keep written transfer notices when they transfer waste to another party.
Obtaining sufficient evidence to prosecute can be difficult and complex. The
additional post within the Environmental Wardens Team has been created to address
this issue, working closely with the Trade Waste Service it is expected that this area
be given a priority by enforcing the ‘Duty of Care’ aspects thus reducing the amount
of waste entering the domestic waste stream, reducing fly-tipping of commercial
waste and decrease problems form litter and rubbish due to inadequate storage and
management of waste.
Householder Duty of Care
Householders were exempt from the Environmental Protection Act 1990 section 34
legal duty of care until recently. New regulations now require householders to take
reasonable measures for the waste generated from their property and transferred to an
authorised person; this means that Householders are expected to check that trades
undertaking work at their property are registered waste carriers. It is expected that the
additional Environmental Warden, supported by the Team will undertake enforcing
this ‘Duty of Care’ aspect, attention will also be focused on the back lane and waste
communal areas within the towns to reduce fly-tipping and decrease problems from
litter and rubbish, thus reducing the amount of fly tipping generated from home
improvements, gardening and driveway constructions.
Outcomes will include:
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The ability to take enforcement action on any detected offence, including
issuing FPNs in accordance with the Enforcement Policy principles
Take timely prosecutions where appropriate for offences and non-payment of
FPNs
Deliver an effective education programme to schools, businesses and the
public through campaigns and high profile pro-active and reactive awareness
and surveillance programmes.
Geographical targeting
The over-riding aim of the strategy is to improve LEQ throughout the Borough,
however it is acknowledged that a degree of geographical targeting is required to
address key issues for local stakeholders.
The following areas are considered to be priorities within the strategy, either for
enforcement or direct delivery of services:
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Neighbourhood Management areas
Town Centres
Visitor destinations
Parks and Open Spaces
Gateways and Transport corridors
Fixed Penalty levels – appendix xxxxxx
Although there is a standard period for payment of FPNs of 14 days, the proposal for
discounts for FPNs paid early suggests setting early payment discounts no more than
10 days from the date of issue to avoid confusion, should this be an option.
LEQ Education and Enforcement Programme
Policy
Policy on Fly Tipping
Prosecutions
Date
Policy on use of Fixed
Penalty Notices (FPNs)
New Powers in the Clean
Neighbourhoods and
Environment Act 2005 in
Force
Consultation on
Envirocrimes and
Enforcement
Environmental Wardens
Action Plan Drafted
June 2007
Street Scene action plan
drafted Drafted
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April 2006
Outcome
Adoption to prosecute in cases
of fly-tipping and to publicise
prosecution outcomes in order
to raise awareness
Adopted criteria for the use of
FPNs for environmental crime
enforcement
A range of measures including
FPNs available to local
authorities
What enforcement measures
thought would be appropriate
in each case
A cross-cutting Action Plan
reflecting the multiple roles of
the service
Measures to improve service
provision e.g. Street Cleansing
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July 2007
Draft LEQ Enforcement
Strategy and Policy Adopted
Neighbourhood
Management
Consultation Review
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and Litter Picking, community
engagement to be included.
Setting up Monitoring
processes to assess levels of
Litter, dog fouling and flytipping. Regular regulation of
education and enforcement
action.
Consolidation of enforcement
measures with the principles of
enforcement best practice
contained in the national
Enforcement Concordat (a
Central Government
Document signed up to by the
Council)
Incorporated aims and
objectives for LEQ
enforcement and a charging
and prioritisation scheme for
FPNs
Development of baseline
survey and ongoing
programme of work to tackle
LEQ in South Workington and
Maryport.
Work will involve partnership
activity with RSLs and
PCSOs.
A system to gain real time
indicators of resident
satisfaction with LEQ will be
piloted in South Workington.
On going – annual review and
re-alignment. Reviewed by
officers elected members,
public engagement initiatives
and partnership groups.
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