Fly Tipping prosecution and enforcement numbers

 Due to the current situation with COVID-19 the majority of the Council’s
regular staffing and resources are being directed to helping our
communities and vulnerable people who are experiencing difficulties during
the pandemic.

Therefore while we focus on aiding our residents, there will be an
uncalculated delay in processing Freedom of Information, Environmental
Information and Subject Access Requests.

Accordingly, to prevent a backlog, we kindly ask you to consider
withdrawing your requests and enquiries by return email. Otherwise, we ask
for your patience and understanding during this unprecedented situation
and refer your attention to our website
[1]http://www.reigate-banstead.gov.uk/coron... we share regular
updates which may answer your questions.

Thank you for your support

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.reigate-banstead.gov.uk/coron...)

Reference: FOI-265309588
Date of request: 26/10/2020
Title of request: Fly tip

Dear Mr M P Hay,

Thank you for your request. This is an automated email acknowledgement
from Reigate & Banstead Borough Council. 

This mailbox is monitored during the working hours of 8:00am to 4:00pm
Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays). Emails received outside of
these working hours will usually be processed during the next available
working day.

You can find more information about the FOI process on the Council website

through the following
link; [1]http://www.reigate-banstead.gov.uk/info/...

Regards
Information Officer

Reigate & Banstead Borough Council
Telephone: 01737 276000
Web: [2]www.reigate-banstead.gov.uk
Follow us on twitter @reigatebanstead

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.reigate-banstead.gov.uk/info/...
2. http://www.reigate-banstead.gov.uk/

Reference: FOI-265309588
Date of request: 26/10/2020
Title of request: Fly tip

Dear Mr M P Hay,

Thank you for your Freedom of Information Act (2000) ( the “Act”) request.

We can provide information for part of your enquiry but not for the entire
request as we only partially hold the necessary material. Please
find below the relevant details:

In the two weeks prior to and including 25th Oct, Reigate and Banstead
Borough Council have  "cleared 364 fly tips and the average size of a fly
tip has almost doubled since the start of lockdown.  Dumped waste takes
time and money to clear."

How many prosecutions or enforcement notices have been issued in the
period of time ? Zero, as the footage is being reviewed.

How much money to clear has this cost and how many hours have been used in
this clean up. We do not keep a record of this as the cost is absorbed
into the street cleansing budget, which is currently £1 million a year.

Finally, re "we are deploying covert camera's all over the Borough" can
you advise how many and the cost of this deployment. We currently have 1
VIPA camera which is deployed at recycling centres around the borough and
3 Brinno cameras which are deployed at known fly tipping areas throughout
the borough. We do not have the cost of these deployments.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be
submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your
original letter and should be addressed to:
[1][Reigate and Banstead Borough Council request email]

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF or through their website at [2]https://ico.org.uk/.

 1. This information is supplied for your personal use only. Providing
you  with documents under the Freedom of Information Act does not give
you an automatic right to re-use those documents in a way that would
infringe  copyright - for example by making multiple copies, or by
publishing / issuing copies to the public.
 2. Copyright in the information is owned by Reigate and Banstead Borough
Council and/or its contractor(s) unless otherwise stated. Brief
extracts of the material can be reproduced under the "fair dealing"
provisions of the  Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988 (S.29 and
S.30) for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes,
private study, criticism, review and  news reporting.
 3. We do not give permission for this information to be used for
the purposes of direct marketing.
 4. If you wish to use this information for commercial purposes then,
in accordance with the Regulations on the Re-use of Public Sector
Information  2005, you must first ask our permission. Such re-use may
or may not involve the granting of a licence and the application of a
Fee.

Regards
Information Officer

Reigate & Banstead Borough Council
Telephone: 01737 276000
Web: [3]www.reigate-banstead.gov.uk
Follow us on twitter @reigatebanstead

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Reigate and Banstead Borough Council request email]
2. Information Commissioner's Office
https://ico.org.uk/
3. http://www.reigate-banstead.gov.uk/

Dear Mr Hay,

I have received your request for an internal review of the above
referenced FOIA request  today,  2^nd November 2020.

An internal review takes place after a request for information made under
the Act has been refused, denied ,partially denied, or  if you’re
otherwise unhappy with the response to your request . It looks at;

o the Council’s handling of the request
o whether any exemptions relied upon are engaged
o the process also has the power to  overturn the decision and release
the information, if required It will be carried out by a senior
officer.

In line with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO ) guidance we look
to complete an internal review promptly, but in any case, within  20
working days from the date of the request for review. In some cases there
may be a reason for a delay and should that be case we will write to you
to notify you of the delay and to give you an estimated date of
completion.

In the meantime should you have any questions about this process feel free
to contact me.

Nicole Idaomi

Data Protection Officer

[1][email address]

Reigate and Banstead Borough Council

Town Hall, Castlefield Road,

Reigate, Surrey, RH2 0SH

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Dear M.P. Hay,

Re: Internal Review of Freedom of Information Request - Fly Tipping
prosecution and enforcement numbers

In our response time, we ask for your patience and understanding during
these unprecedented times. However, please note Section 10 of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 sets out the time frames for response and
authorities are to respond by the 20th working day following the date of
receipt of the request. A response is due today and not 23rd November as
you indicated.

The Freedom of Information Act covers all recorded information held by a
public authority, if the authority retains possession of that information.
What this means is that any records that we hold at the time your request
was made should be considered for release under the Act.

The internal review itself is designed to be an impartial review taken by
someone not involved in the original request. It is a fair and thorough
review of both the handling of the request and of decisions taken. 

The review is capable of overturning any of the previous decisions,
including any information that has been withheld under the public interest
test.

Anything that is not a request for recorded information, for example a
complaint, a comment about how Council services are run or a request for
other services, cannot be addressed either by the Act or in an internal
review.  The normal routes for complaints or service request should be
used.

Please also note Elected members are not subject to FOI, as they are
classed as individuals, not "public authorities". The information elected
members create on constituency, or party political, business is not
covered. This means that correspondence with constituents as part of their
democratic engagement is also not covered by FOI law. If they receive
requests, Councilors may choose to answer them, but in so doing would not
be bound by FOI law.

Further to your email received 2 November 2020, I have been asked to
undertake an internal review for a clarification of Council’s response for
the above Freedom of Information (FOI) request. I set out my assessment
and conclusions below.

Background

Your engagement with the Council on this issue began when you raised
concerns about the Information that had been posted onto a social media
site whereby Councilor Bramhall had made a comment that stated:

In the two weeks prior to and including 25th Oct 2020, Reigate and
Banstead Borough Council have “cleared 364 fly tips…” and How many
prosecutions or enforcement notices have been issued in the period of
time? the reply from Cllr Bramhall was “quite a lot actually.”

Subsequently under the Freedom of Information Act, you requested
clarification and if possible, a specific number, and in the response
Reigate and Banstead Borough Council replied that the actual figure of
enforcement notices or prosecutions was “Zero.”

You stated that there was clearly a conflict, where one element of the
Council gives one version of events, whilst a Councillor gives a wholly
different and possibly mis-leading version into the public domain.

You further asked:

1.           Did you in fact give "wrong" information and the figure you
quoted of "Zero" was not correct.

2.           Please advise if this was indeed the case and why it would
appear to be conflicting, that is, both the Councillor and Reigate and
Banstead Council offer different information, leading to questioning the
integrity of the data being offered by 2 different functions in the same
Council.

In response to the first question, the information given was not wrong as
I believe the actual response to the FOI question was in relation to a
specific time frame of“ In the two weeks prior to and including 25th
Oct’’, In the figure given of Zero this indeed is a factual statement as
at the time of your FOI request the footage was being reviewed and there
are two investigations still ongoing and zero prosecutions at the moment.
This may change pending the conclusion of the investigation going forward
but at the time of request it would have been Zero.

In response to your second question, I have assessed this to being more of
a misunderstanding than anything else. The council’s response was
definitely in relation to the specific time frame you gave. I can only
assume the councillor’s response was in reference to possibly a total
annual sum figure as opposed to the specific timeframe requested. Although
please note I have not had the opportunity to confirm this from the
councillor.

To add further clarification, I have taken the liberty to include the
following facts:

•            Since the initial lockdown there have been a total of 21
Fixed Penalty Notices for fly tipping and 8 for littering (this
information is valid up till 13th November 2020)

•            For 2020 there has been a total of 35 Fixed Penalty Notices
to date.

•            For 2019 there was a total of 98 Fixed Penalty Notices

•            2020 Investigations carried out for street fly tipping is 208
cases

•            2019 Investigations carried out for street fly tipping was
908 cases.

Conclusion

I conclude that the council have answered your FOI request with facts and
within the stipulated time range that you requested, and the integrity of
the data provided is intact. I hope that in light of my internal review
you are able to accept the Council’s clarification to the response of your
most recent FOI.

However, if you are not content with the outcome of my review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision.

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at www.ico.org.uk, or The
Information Commissioner's Office, Wyecliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Yours Sincerely,

Nicole Idaomi

show quoted sections