Fly-tipping
Debate between Anna Dixon and Mary Creagh(3 months, 2 weeks ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mary Creagh)
What a pleasure it is to be back and serving under your esteemed chairmanship, Mr Efford. I thank all honourable colleagues for their kind words on my return to the House after my short enforced sabbatical.
Can I say how thrilled I am to respond to this debate? As an Environment Minister, I know that everyone’s environment starts outside their own front door. It is clear from the passion in this room that those on all sides of the House care deeply about the need to educate people on the fact that there is no such place as “away”. There is no throwing away. There are only materials that come into our possession, get used and are then disposed of, and the disposal and collection of those materials is essential if we are to create a circular economy.
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing Southall (Deirdre Costigan) for securing this debate and pay tribute to LAGER Can, who are here, and the many community groups up and down the country, including my local Ball Hill residents’ association in Coventry East, that organise litter picks and are stepping in to fill the gap left by 14 years of devastating cuts—two-thirds cuts—to local authority spending power caused by the Conservatives.
Anna Dixon
In my constituency of Shipley, which falls within the Bradford district, swingeing cuts to local government budgets under the previous Government have forced the council to make impossible choices, including the closure of two tips, at Sugden End and Ilkley in the shadow Minister’s constituency, used extensively by my constituents. Of course, residents fear that there will be an increase in fly-tipping, which is already a problem. Does the Minister agree that cash-strapped councils cannot be expected to solve this problem alone? Let us stop blaming them and look at what support can be given from the national Government.
Mary Creagh
I thank my hon. Friend for her contribution and agree that if we are to create a zero-waste economy, which is the stated aim of this Labour Government, we have to start by ensuring that we increase collection and follow the environmental principles that ensure that the polluter pays. It comes back to some of the points about full-cost recovery and the fact that it is not in the interests of councils to enforce prosecution.
The shadow Minister raised the issue of Bradford council, but I can tell him that I intend to write to all 13 councils that reported zero enforcement actions in the past reporting year. They are Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council, which is Lib Dem and Tory-run; Colchester, which is Tory-run; East Devon, which has no overall control; Exeter, which is Labour; Fylde, which is Tory; Isles of Scilly, which is independent; Lewes, which is Lib Dem and Tory; Sedgemoor, which is not clear; Somerset West and Taunton, which, again, was Conservative; South Hams, which is Lib Dem; South Somerset, which no longer exists—there are a few that have merged; Uttlesford; and West Devon. All those reported zero enforcement actions in the past year. That is not good enough.
Looking at the tally, I see that it is not Labour councils that are doing nothing. The shadow Minister was quick to criticise Bradford council, but 86 fixed penalty notices is actually not a bad record given where some local authorities find themselves. My hon. Friend the Member for Ealing Southall, as the former Chair of West London Waste, knows only too well about what happens at the very end of this long pipeline of waste and recycling.
I pay tribute to Members in this debate. Fly-tipping is a crime that blights local communities and, indeed, poses a great difficulty to landowners. We heard some comments about whether we can have a whole-nation policy, but this policy is devolved. As the granddaughter of a Fermanagh farmer, I know all too well about the issues of fly-tipping around Rosslea. It is a devolved matter and responsibility for addressing and managing fly-tipping lies with each devolved Administration. As we have seen through the debate, approaches to tackling fly-tipping change and need to be responsive to local needs, not least because what works in inner-city Newham will not necessarily work in Strangford.