Fly-tipping Letter sent to T&B

Letter regarding fly-tipping sent to Thetford and Brandon Times

Dear Editor,

Further to the letter last week from Jane Bishop, I wanted to write and respond on behalf of the West Thetford Community Fly-tipping project which was referred to. This is a pilot project undertaken diligently by Barbara Bysouth, which has been making important strides forward in recent months. The project was born out of partnership working between the Safer Thetford Action Group, local resident associations, Breckland Council and Flagship Housing Association. Part of the project is indeed about reporting incidents of fly-tips, but more importantly it’s about encouraging others to report them too so that items can be removed promptly and they become less of a common sight and therefore the very presence of fly-tips does not become an acceptable norm. If we as a community are to tackle fly-tipping the solution I feel is about changing hearts and minds and indeed culture. Partly through enforcement and partly through education. For example, work is ongoing to highlight what can and cannot be taken to the waste recycling centre and what can and cannot go in which wheelie bin for example. Rarely in my role as a Councillor do I come across a fly-tip which could not have actually been dealt with through one of those routes which is why I do not agree with the view that fly-tipping is predominantly because of restrictions for legitimate disposal. More often it’s the result of sheer laziness, a lack of pride in ones community and the knowledge that enforcement and therefore repercussions are unlikely. Part of the project has been to engage in regular community walkabouts and identify evidence within fly-tipped material so that follow up action can be taken, and as a result, several residents have been contacted and investigations are ongoing. Further to this, at our most recent Fly-tipping Project Management Group meeting, we heard about some very encouraging work due to take place in local schools whereby children will be investigating the impact on communities because of fly-tipping, what the law says including fines that exist and how to dispose of items responsibility. This mix, together with generally working to improve pride in our communities will hopefully help reduce such incidents occurring, but sadly it will never of course remove the scourge that is fly-tipping but that should not dissuade our efforts. The ‘report it’ function on the Breckland Council website is an easy to use method for reporting a number of common community matters and I’d urge people to give it a try – (www.breckland.gov.uk/content/report-it).

Best wishes

Councillor Terry Jermy (Labour)

Chairman, West Thetford Community Fly-tipping Project Management Group