Litterbugs are getting away scott free according to the Liberal Democrats – after it was revealed that Southwark Council failed fine a single litterer last year.
Southwark Council has powers to hit people with £100 fixed penalty notices, rising to £150, for poor rubbish disposal. But is one of the 21 per cent of councils that took no action against offenders between 2021 and 2022, according to campaign group Clean Up Britain.
Lashing out at the council, Deputy Southwark Liberal Democrat Leader Rachel Bentley said: “Residents from across the borough have been telling us that they’re fed up of having their streets full of overflowing bins, discarded fridges, and litter everywhere.
“It’s time that our light touch council took action. The shocking revelation about litter fines only confirms that the council just doesn’t take this seriously.”
The latest revelations come amidst a flurry of statistics that have people questioning the council’s commitment to tackling dirty streets.
For example, it has been revealed that, last year, the council imposed fines over just two per cent of fly-tipping cases.
Simultaneously, research by the Liberal Democrat Group showed the council had spent £983,000 on fly-tip clean-ups last year.
Despite, the mounting piles of rubbish, the Lib Dems also claim the council’s street cleaning rota has shifted from every four to five weeks.
The Lib Dems have put forward a number of proposals that it says would stem the flow of rubbish pouring onto pavements.
Southwark Council set to increase controversial bulky waste charge
These include scrapping the £35 charge for bulky waste disposal, reversing the rota change, setting up a ‘fly-tipping task force’ and using data to identify fly-tipping hotspots.
However, bulky waste collection charges are not unusual in London boroughs and can be an important source of revenue.
In the six years after introducing charges in 2015, Southwark Council brought in an extra £1.2m.
Moreover, Lara Daniel, Tenants’ and Residents’ Association Chair at the Kingswood Estate in West Dulwich suggested the council’s actions of fly-tipping were working.
Asked about the extent of fly-tipping on the estate, she said: “Not much anymore! We had a CCTV camera installed near the hotspot where fly-tipping was rampant on the estate.”
Southwark Council was approached for comment.
