Agenda item

To consider any questions submitted by Members of the Council, in accordance with Standing Order 4.8.11 (b).

In accordance with Standing Order 4.8.11 three questions had been submitted by the required deadline set out in the Constitution.

(A)  Council Financial Information

Councillor David Levett to Councillor Ian Albert (Executive Member for Finance and IT)

(B)  Breach of the Code of Conduct Investigation and Withdrawn Sub-Committee Costs

Councillor Ralph Muncer to Councillor Ian Albert (Executive Member for Finance and IT)

(C)  Fly-tipping

Councillor Ralph Muncer to Councillor Amy Allen (Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management)

Audio recording – 23:54

In accordance with Standing Order 4.8.11 three questions had been submitted by the required deadline as set out in the Constitution.

(A)  Council Financial Information

Councillor David Levett to Councillor Ian Albert (Executive Member for Finance and IT).

The Chair advised that as Councillor Albert was not in attendance and had provided a written response which had been published as a supplement to the agenda.

Councillor David Levett advised that the written response was comprehensive and that he did not have a supplementary question.

(B)  Breach of the Code of Conduct Investigation and Withdrawn Sub-Committee Costs

Councillor Ralph Muncer to Councillor Ian Albert (Executive Member for Finance and IT)

The Chair advised that Councillor Albert was not in attendance and had provided a written response which had been published as a supplement to the agenda.

Having been invited by the Chair, Councillor Ralph Muncer read out his question as published and asked the following supplementary question:

“Does the Executive Member agree with the findings of the independent investigator in that the Leader of the Council breached the Code of Conduct?”

The Chair explained that a written response would be provided at a later day and made available on the relevant Council meeting page.

(C)  Fly-tipping

Councillor Ralph Muncer to Councillor Amy Allen (Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management).

“‘To ask the Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management to detail to Council for the years 2019/2020, 2020/2021, 2021/2022, 2022/2023:

A.    The number of Fly-tipping incidents recorded in North Hertfordshire,

B.    The total cost to the Council of addressing Fly-tipping incidents,

C.    The amount spent by NHDC on the prevention of Fly-tipping,

D.    The number of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) issued by NHDC for Fly-tipping,

E.    The number of prosecutions brought by NHDC for Fly-tipping.”

Councillor Amy Allen gave a response as follows:

“For the benefit of everybody in the room I’m going to read out the statistics that were produced in the MIS three weeks ago.

A, the number of fly-tipping incidents recorded in North Hertfordshire 2019-2020 was 603, 2020-2021 was 1,048, 2021-2022 was 874, 2022-2023 was 839. Again, this information is available in the MIS that was circulated on the 17^th of March.

Question D, the number of fixed penalty notices FPNs issues by North Hertfordshire District Council for fly-tipping 2019-2020 was 15, 2020-2021 was 27, 2021-2022 was 25, 2022-2023 was 11.

And question E the number of prosecutions brought by North Hertfordshire Council for fly-tipping 2019-2020 was 3, 2020-2021 it was 6, 2021-2022 it was 1, 2022-2023 it was 2.

Those are the answers to questions A, D and E.

The answer to question B total cost to the Council of addressing fly-tipping incidents, this is going to have to be a written response because there is far too much information to quantify and put into a verbal response, and you’ll get that in writing very soon.

Question C the amount spent by North Hertfordshire District Council on the prevention of fly-tipping again there is not a quantifiable preventative measure. The cost of total forming or parts of investigation, putting up posters, NHDC social media, having covert cameras in known fly-tipping sites and hot spots, enforcement tools that are used. There is too much to give you an exact number of how much is spent but we’re working on having some sort of ballpark figure and we’ll get that to you in due course.”

Councillor Muncer asked a supplementary question, as follows:

“I thank Councillor Allen for her swift response, and I look forward to receiving the remaining data in due course. Now, with record levels of fly-tipping in North Hertfordshire under this Labour and Liberal Democrat administration and with these figures only set to increase further as residents waste collections are cut can the Executive Member tell me what proportion of the apparent money that is being saved by cutting bin collections will go towards preventing fly-tipping in our district?”

Councillor Amy Allen responded:

“If it was likely that we were going to be seeing an uptick in fly-tipping then there would be money put into it. But it is quite unlikely that we are going to. The assumption that our residents are suddenly going to become law-breaking people and fly-tip all of their household goods into the streets is somewhat unlikely. Fly-tipped goods are usually things like sofas and fridge freezers, which one cannot fit into a purple bin, although they have probably tried. I haven’t personally. Anyway, I am not expecting household waste to be appearing as fly-tipping and as far as costs go, when we have had a significant reduction in funding to run the authority, and we are doing everything we can to carry on providing the kerbside services that we do, and the changes that we are making that people actually want and need, it is going to have to go towards funding the service full-stop. We do not make money out of it or anything like that, we are literally working hard to carry on funding the services with a dwindling budget.”