It’s a #CrimeNotToCare when it comes to getting rid of your rubbish. On the week commencing the 4th June 2018 we are launching a campaign to tackle the epidemic of fly tipping that is affecting communities up and down the country. In our District in the past 12 months there have been just over 630 incidents of fly tipping and this cost the council just over £40,000 to clear up.
#CrimeNotToCare, which is being run in partnership with environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, aims to educate householders about the right thing to do with their rubbish and to reduce the amount of household waste that is fly-tipped by rogue traders who offer to take people’s waste away for money and then dump it. The campaign aims to get the message across that if an individual’s waste is fly tipped, even if they gave it to a third party to dispose of, they can be prosecuted and end up with a fine and a criminal record.
Keep Britain Tidy Chief Executive Allison Ogden-Newton said: “#CrimeNotToCare is an important campaign for our country and we are delighted that Harrogate Borough Council is partnering with us on it.
There are almost a million fly-tipping incidents in England every year and cleaning it all up costs us £50million a year. It blights communities and our countryside and is a menace. We need the public to understand that their rubbish is their responsibility and they must do the right thing with it.
Research carried out by Keep Britain Tidy showed that there is a staggering lack of understanding about the public’s role in preventing fly-tipping. More than a third of people thought it was OK to do things that are classed as fly-tipping, including leaving something outside because ‘the Council will take it away’ or ‘someone else might be able to use it’.
They also had little understanding about their duty of care when handing over their rubbish to someone else, with almost 50% not knowing that they could be prosecuted if they handed over their rubbish to someone who subsequently fly tipped it.
Giving it to a ‘man with a van’ who offers to get rid of it cheaply could prove costly for people and result in them getting a criminal record. They have a duty of care and this campaign will help explain to them exactly what that is and how to protect themselves.
Please find attached with this email a poster which we would encourage you to display to spread the message to your local residents (click on the PDF icon to view). There is also a leaflet providing further information in respect to duty of care responsibilities. If you have a website we would encourage you to put the following website on www.harrogate.gov.uk/flytipping to direct your residents to find out more. I have also included a banner which you could, if you wish, include in the signature of any emails you send out to help spread the message. If you require a paper copy of either document please do not hesitate to contact us on the details below.
You will hopefully notice the posters going up across the District, with the Councils bin wagons also helping to spreading the message. On Tuesday 5th June Environmental Protection officers will be in Harrogate town centre speaking to members of the public and informing them of their ‘duty of care’ responsibilities. They will also be at Ripon city centre market on Thursday the 7th June and Knaresborough town centre market on Wednesday the 13th June.
If you are free please come down and meet us, and help spread the ‘CrimeNotToCare’ message. In addition if you have any questions regarding the content of this letter please contact either myself or my colleague Lucy Reed on the details below.
Yours faithfully
GEMMA DEMALINE
Area Environmental Health Officer
gemma.demaline@harrogate.gov.uk
01423 500600 Ext 58526
Working hours: Mon-Wed 09:00-17:00
LUCY REED
Technical Officer
lucy.reed@harrogate.gov.uk
01423 500600 Ext: 58184