9 December 2004
New Bill will make Ryedale “cleaner, safer and greener”
Cllr Paul Blanchard, standing for Labour in Ryedale at the next election, has welcomed new Government legislation that aims to make Ryedale a cleaner, safer and greener place to live.
The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Bill will tackle problems such as graffiti, fly-posting, litter and fly-tipping form to complement the ongoing work to tackle noise, bad behaviour, vandalism, disorder and crime.
The bill will give local authorities and other agencies stronger powers to tackle problems associated with anti-social behaviour and the local environment.
Paul said:
“This legislation should make Ryedale a cleaner, safer and greener place to live. Labour is driving up local environmental quality.
“This Bill will help tackle environmental crime and anti-social behaviour. 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. These are problems caused by a minority of individuals that can ruin the lives of honest, hardworking people.
“We are introducing this Bill to make sure the people who cause the problem are held to account and that we get the cleaner, safer neighbourhoods that we all want to live in. This contrasts with the Tories' £35 billion cuts that would threaten all of this and mean people's streets wouldn't be cleaner, safer and greener – they would be dirtier and more polluted.
“This is good news for Ryedale and I'm pleased that Labour are again making a real difference to the lives of hardworking people in the constituency.”
Notes for editors
What the bill will do:
· It contains a range of measures and tools for local authorities and the Environment Agency to deal with fly-tipping, litter, fly-posting, abandoned vehicles and other nuisances which blight communities.
· Abandoned vehicles can cause significant problems when dumped. The direct costs to local authorities of investigating, removing and disposing of abandoned vehicles was £26m in 2002/3. The measures in this Bill will help reduce these costs by enabling local authorities to immediately remove abandoned vehicles off the streets.
· It is already an offence to drop litter and the current fine is £50. This will rise to £75 under measures contained within the Bill.
· It is already an offence to drop chewing gum and cigarette ends as they are perceived to be litter. Due to this slight ambiguity one of the clauses in the Bill specifically defines chewing gum and discarded ends of cigarettes as litter. The fixed penalty notice applicable to these offences is set at £75. However the Bill will allow local authorities to specify their own amount within a minimum and maximum range yet to be specified in regulations.
· The Bill also allows for litter authorities to authorise individuals in writing to enable them to issue appropriate fixed penalty notices. For example this could be their own employees, community wardens and traffic wardens (if they wished to).
