Enfield Council declares war on grime crime

The move comes after Cllr Rick Jewell, who recently became the Council‘s Cabinet Member for Environment, ordered a review of street cleaning in Enfield having listened to residents’ views on the increase in levels of dumping and fly tipping Enfield has experienced during the pandemic, along with the rest of the country, as peoples’ working and home patterns have changed considerably. 

Cllr Jewell’s first decision will be to scrap bulky waste charges*.

Cllr Jewell said: “I am passionate about keeping our streets clean and I cannot accept the levels of fly tipping and dumping currently being experienced - there is work to be done. Residents continually tell us that their main concern is the condition of our streets and they want us to do more about it.

“We’ve listened to what they’ve said and we’re going to find ways to improve the street cleaning service and make it more responsive. 

"Despite the challenges of the pandemic we have remained prudent in our spending over the last 18 months enabling us to invest in tackling this resident priority which is a blight on Enfield.

"This will help make our borough cleaner and enable us to bring to book those disgusting ‘criminals’ who dump rubbish on our streets.

 “The pandemic has been rough for all of us and has seen an increase in rubbish dumping, now is the time to do something about it, as we recover back to whatever the new norms are we are committed to  making Enfield the cleanest borough in London.

 “We want residents to play their part by reporting all fly tips and giving us any information they have on the criminals who dump rubbish on our streets.  

"If we work together to dispose of our own rubbish responsibly, we can continue to build an Enfield that everyone is proud to call home.  That is why we’re looking at scrapping fees for bulky waste collections to help everyone do the right thing.”

In 2019/20 Enfield had the 13th lowest fly tipping rate in London and took the 8th highest number of enforcement actions in London, demonstrating it’s commitment to keeping the borough clean and bring to book those people who dumped rubbish in Enfield.

However incidents have increased both locally and nationally during the coronavirus pandemic and the Council is now keen to reduce incidents of rubbish dumping in Enfield to below pre-pandemic levels.

 *All decisions relating to investment in services and service changes are subject to the appropriate approval process.

 Notes to Editors

 *As a percentage, 0.13% of all collections were missed in April 2021 (latest data available)

**Data from Defra indicate that the number of fly-tipping incidents in Enfield is below the average in London. Where Enfield has 14.9 incidents per 1,000 people, the average in London is 40.2. All data can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/env24-fly-tipping-incidents-and-actions-taken-in-england

On enforcement actions in the DEFRA statistics 2019/20: Enfield’s key enforcement actions were high top quartile in England as below:

We were 1st out of all 314 Local Authorities for ‘Duty of Care’ inspection actions – this is predominately proactive work to check that businesses are disposing of their waste legally
6th highest for ‘statutory notice actions
13th highest for ‘total enforcement actions’ (eg FPNs and statutory Notices)
15th highest for fly-tipping FPNs
23rd highest for littering FPNs in conjunction with fly tipping
 Enfield’s key enforcement actions were top half performers in London as below:

 We were 1st out of all 33 London Boroughs for ‘Duty of Care’ inspection actions – this is predominately proactive work to check that businesses are disposing of their waste legally
2nd highest for ‘statutory notice actions
8th highest for ‘total enforcement actions’ (eg FPNs and statutory Notices)
13th highest for fly-tipping FPNs
13th highest for littering FPNs in conjunction with flytipping
Our Waste enforcement team served 568 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) in 2020/21 and issued 1,054 notices in relation to waste offences.
Our litter contractor issued 6,201 FPNs mostly in relation to litter, but this includes some FPNs for fly-tipping and spitting too.
While incidents may have increased nationwide during the lockdowns over the past 15 months, this is now beginning to return to pre-pandemic levels.