Political View: Is fly-tipping taskforce the answer?

Issues are in the main those which affect residents’ everyday lives and with recurring themes: Fly tipping; Planning applications, rough sleepers, speeding, neighbour disputes, cycling on the pavements and bad parking; however, we are now seeing a more recent entry into the top 10 – EScooters!

And not without reason. A recent investigation by a national newspaper has found that e-scooter collisions have trebled in three years and that deaths and serious injuries linked to motorised machines have also reached worryingly high levels.

Safety campaigners are calling for legal safeguards on their use and want police to enforce the rules banning them from pavements.

In total 29 people died between 2020 and 2023 in 4515 e-scooter collisions, which also caused 1042 are serious injuries. The AA have said these figures show a worrying trend that needs to be nipped in the bud by legislation and better police enforcement.

The reality is that legislation is needed urgently to regulate top speeds, brakes and size of wheels, and to prevent importation of dangerous batteries which can cause fires.

It’s clear that scooter use has been largely untouched by effective controls with many users seeing themselves as immune from regulations.

As a resident who contacted me said – it’s like Wild West out there!

Clearly scooters which have the capability to achieve higher speeds and are effectively road vehicles need to be registered, taxed and carry license plates, together with lights and audible warning capabilities, and be subject to recurring MOT type safety checks.

There might be a case for e-scooters to be used on the pavement, but these must be speed governed if the owners expect to escape the stricter regulations and enforcement for those used on the highway.

The perennial concern of many residents and another mailbox filler is fly tipping and littering. To the dismay of many this practice has reached epidemic proportions in several areas of the city and on rural roads and verges,

Although CCTV cameras in have been deployed in fly-tipping hotspots the Council says the crime “continues to be an issue” around the city.

Whilst from past experience I am somewhat sceptical of initiatives on this issue I am pleased see that that City Council is giving it ‘another go’ to discuss setting up a cross-party fly-tipping taskforce.

The group would look at ways to combat the problem, review the council’s progress so far, and consider new ways to reduce dumped waste.

A recent report said there had been a 19% increase in recorded offences since 2017: that increase is unsustainable both for Council resources and public perception of what the local authority can do to deal with the problem.

The council was awarded £50,000 by the government last year to target hot spots. With the funding cameras were installed to help with its enforcement action, and a social media campaign was launched focusing on the responsibility of residents to make sure those they hire to remove waste have the required licence and work legally.

Residents don’t have a lot of faith in what is being done, but the council has said it issued 66 fines for fly-tipping since April 2024 and prepared 18 cases for court action, and during this time their contractor collected 1,492 tonnes of rubbish.

The report stated the new taskforce would have a member from each political group and a councillor representing rural areas where fly-tipping can be a bigger issue.

It would gather evidence from “key witnesses”, review the council’s current activity, and look at other areas of the UK where they have been successful in tackling the problem.

Hopefully the outcome will be actions rather that words, and outcomes that will bear fruit!