Action to tackle litter and dog fouling in Sheffield with more enforcement staff
Sheffield City Council is set to sign up to an agreement with City of Doncaster Council for the joint use of an outside contractor to tackle litter and dog fouling.
The agreement with Doncaster for litter and dog fouling enforcement services was initially approved last month by a meeting of the council’s environmental services and regulation committee.
The contract will see more people fined for litter and dog fouling offences.
The committee recommended that the February meeting of the full council should sign off on an initial one-year agreement with Doncaster to provide enforcement services.
The service will be provided by a contractor, Waste Investigations Support & Enforcement Ltd (WISE), which currently works with more than 40 local authorities.
City of Doncaster Council already has similar agreements for Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, North Lincolnshire Council, and North-East Lincolnshire Council.
Enforcement
The council has been employing temporary or agency staff to carry out littering enforcement. Revenue generated from fixed penalty otices (FPN) was around £50,000 per annum but this was significantly less than the cost of employing staff to issue these notices, which was as much as £108,000.
Budget pressures and the significant back-office costs in processing FPNs meant that the council had to explore alternative options.
The council says it does not have capacity for large scale, pro-active litter and dog fouling enforcement without committing additional investment.
Committee chair Coun Joe Otten said: “This is about us taking important steps, alongside our education and engagement work to keep our environment as clean and beautiful as possible.
“Everyone feels better when they can be proud of where they live and their city overall.
“It’s good news that we have been able to take this opportunity to work together with Doncaster to improve our local environment.
Duties
“We are carrying out our statutory duties to improve our local environment all the time and whilst most residents do not drop litter and the great majority of dog owners do clear up after their dogs, there still need to be a strong enforcement response to tackle the minority that do not.
“The cost of clearing litter can be considerable and that is money and resource that would be better directed elsewhere. We’re hopeful that this one-year pilot will be successful and will monitor it closely over the next year.”