I am aware of the serious concern expressed at Monday’s Rye town council meeting about the civil enforcement of fines for littering. Rother District Council (RDC) officers will make contact with the town council about the specific incident quoted. Meanwhile I wish to explain about the scheme more generally, and how it works.
The council entered into a concessionary agreement with NES Ltd (National Enforcement Solutions Ltd) at the end of August to enforce a range of environmental offences including littering, fly-tipping and dog control, issuing fixed penalty notices (FPN), when it was recognised effective enforcement was not being carried out.
The company has contracts with numerous councils, including Canterbury, Torbay and Tonbridge and Malling.
NES officers are authorised officers of the council and wear a uniform with a Rother logo, and are overt in carrying out their patrols across the district. It is an offence not to provide them with your name and address.
A FPN is an alternative to prosecution. There is no legal obligation on someone to pay a FPN. If they do not pay the matter is referred to the council with a decision whether to prosecute.
NES employees all wear bodycam cameras when interacting with the public. If the council receives a complaint, council officers can view these videos. They have found that the NES officers have acted reasonably, even in the face of abuse. They are assertive but not aggressive. To comply with data protection legislation these video images are deleted shortly after an FPN has been paid.
If we receive complaints from the public about particular issues, for example dogs in cemeteries or dog fouling outside schools we can direct patrols to be carried out there. They will be used to control littering in Camber over the summer.
The majority of FPNs are issued for littering by way of dropping cigarette butts on the ground. This is not surprising as this is the most common form of littering. Tidy Britain is currently running a publicity campaign to highlight this anti-social act. It would be good if all smokers carried a pouch to dispose of their cigarette butts responsibly.
We have been surprised by the extent that businesses in Rother have been mistakenly disposing of their waste through the council street cleansing and waste collection service. This has been for domestic waste only for over 30 years.
NES Ltd have issued over 1000 FPNs since September. It is therefore expected that some will be issued in error. In those cases the company has cancelled the FPN upon representation.
The council is receiving an income from NES Ltd, which is being used to clear fly-tips, sweep twittens and remove graffiti, including a new project to clean all our bus shelters.
Rother’s cabinet will make a decision about whether to continue with the concessionary agreement with NES Ltd in June. The council cannot resolve not to enforce legislation in Rye or elsewhere.
