UK – Government drafts laws on clean neighbourhoods

The UK Government has pledged to help clean-up our neighbourhoods and improve the local environment after publishing a Bill to tackle environmental crime and anti-social behaviour.



The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Bill, published by Defra, plays a key role in the Government‘‘s plan to create cleaner, safer, greener communities. It contains a package of measures to give local authorities and the Environment Agency more powers to deal with fly-tippers and litter droppers. Fly posting, abandoned vehicles and other nuisances which blight our communities will also be targets for action.



Specific measures in the bill include:

powers to remove abandoned cars from the streets immediately, before they can become eyesores which attract criminal behaviour

new powers to gate nuisance alleyways that attract anti-social behaviour

a range of new powers to deal with fly tipping and litter

new measures to help local authorities deal with noise from burglar alarms and pubs

greater use of fixed penalty fines, which for the first time will be made available to parish councils

The package of measures in the Bill has been developed over two years since the 2002 Urban Summit. Two Defra consultations have been held; most recently Defra‘‘s ‘‘Clean Neighbourhoods‘‘ consultation in summer 2004 on the Bill‘‘s proposed measures. Over 500 responses were received; the great majority of these supported the proposals.



The main provisions:



Fixed Penalty Notices (Fines)



make greater use of fixed penalty fines as an alternative to prosecution, in most cases giving local authorities the flexibility to set their own rates give parish councils the power to issue fixed penalty fines for litter, graffiti, fly posting and dog offences



Crime and Disorder



ensure that local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships take anti-social behaviour affecting the local environment into account in developing crime and disorder reduction strategies. Nuisance and Abandoned Vehicles give local authorities the power to remove abandoned cars from the streets immediately create two new offences to help local authorities deal with nuisance parking: offering for sale two or more vehicles, or repairing a vehicle, on the road as part of a business.



Litter



make it an offence to drop litter anywhere, including private land and rivers, ponds and lakes give local authorities new powers (litter clearing notices) to require businesses and individuals to clear litter from their land strengthen existing powers for local authorities to require local business to help clear up litter they generate (street litter control notices) enable local authorities to restrict the distribution of flyers, hand-outs and pamphlets that can end up as litter confirms that cigarette butts and discarded chewing gum are litter.



Graffiti and fly-posting



extend graffiti removal notices (as introduced by the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003) to include fly-posting improve local authorities powers to tackle the sale of spray paints to children strengthen the legislation to make it harder for beneficiaries of fly posting to evade prosecution enable local authorities to recover the costs of removing illegal posters.



Waste



Amend provisions for dealing with fly-tipping by:

removing the defence of acting under employer‘‘s instructions

increasing the penalties

enabling local authorities and the Environment Agency to recover their investigation and clear-up costs

extending provisions on clear up to the landowner in the absence of the occupier.

Give local authorities and the Environment Agency the power to issue fixed penalty notices (and, in the case of local authorities, to keep the receipts from such penalties) to deal with:

businesses that fail to produce waste transfer notes <