Number of flytipping offences in South Lanarkshire between 2010 and 2018

The request was partially successful.

Jonathan Rainey

Dear South Lanarkshire Council,

I write this letter under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information on flytipping:

1. How many flytipping incidents in the county that your authority controls were reported to South Lanarkshire Council, Police Scotland (including then Strathclyde Police) and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency between 2010 and 2018?
2. How many flytipping cases were dropped between 2010 and 2018 because the evidence was found to be tampered with? Also, how many were dropped due to fears of reprisals from the reported offender(s)? How many were also dropped due to lack of evidence?
3. Can the citizens of the South Lanarkshire area set up their own covert surveillance cameras to capture flytippers in the act themselves? If so, apart from Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (especially regarding section 2 on privacy being exempt in the interest of preventing crime and disorder) what exact laws need to be taken into consideration which includes regards to the Information Commissioner’s Office? If high-quality footage of an offence was successfully captured, can the footage be used in court?
4. What is the Litter Control Strategy that South Lanarkshire Council has to abide by when investigating flytipping cases along with dog fouling and littering cases?

Yours faithfully,

Jonathan Rainey

Marshall, Yvonne, South Lanarkshire Council

Good afternoon and thank you for your enquiry regarding fly tipping received here yesterday. This has been passed to the appropriate officer who will respond to you as soon as possible and no later than 4th June 2019, regards, Yvonne

Yvonne Marshall
Community & Enterprise Resources
South Lanarkshire Council
Montrose House
154 Montrose Crescent
Hamilton
South Lanarkshire
ML3 8UJ

Tel: 01698 455085
e-mail: [email address]
website: www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk

South Lanarkshire Council

show quoted sections

Marshall, Yvonne, South Lanarkshire Council

1 Attachment

Good morning Mr Rainey, please find attached a response to your enquiry
regarding fly tipping, regards, Yvonne

South Lanarkshire Council

show quoted sections

References

Visible links

Jonathan Rainey

Dear South Lanarkshire Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of South Lanarkshire Council's handling of my FOI request 'Number of flytipping offences in South Lanarkshire between 2010 and 2018'.

Although I thank you for answering nearly all of the 1st, some of the 3rd and all of the 4th questions in the previous FOI request, I am disappointed that your authority did not answer the 2nd question and did not quite answer the 3rd question considering that many councils I have asked via whatdotheyknow.com have answered all the questions provided and I would like to request that certain questions be answered as stated in the previous FOI request along with the following added questions below:

1. I am a little bit confused as to the 2 statistics provided in response to the 1st question.
i) Can you clarify exactly what both statistics represent?

2. In response to the 2nd question, I did not imply that Council staff were targets of reprisals from the reported offender(s). I was asking it in the context of members of the public reporting flytipping incidents receiving reprisals from the offender(s) as a result of reporting them. I ask 1 extra question since your authority admitted that they do not hold data on flytipping charges being no longer investigated further due to the 3 reasons provided:
How many flytipping cases reported to your authority between 2010 and 2018 resulted in FPNs and/or criminal convictions?

3. In response to the 3rd question, no information was provided considering that other councils that have been asked the same question on whatdotheyknow.com including West Dunbartonshire, Midlothian. Stirling and nearby West Lothian and they have openly stated that members of the public are not permitted to use covert cameras because of many laws including RIPSA 2000, Data Protection Act 1998, Dog Fouling (Scotland) Act 2003 and regulations from the Information Commissioner's Office. West Lothian Council responded to the same answered questions:

"Covert cameras would not be allowed to be set up by individuals for us to
use the footage. As a Council, if we wanted to use covert cameras we have
to comply with Regulation to Investigatory Powers (Scotland) Act 2000
(RIPSA) legislation to be able to use them.

If overt camera footage is supplied by anyone, along with a statement from
them then we could consider its use as part of evidence for issuing a
Fixed Penalty Notice."

West Dunbartonshire Council responded:

"West Dunbartonshire Council residents, as with other members of the
general public, cannot set up covert CCTV cameras. In terms of
house/residence security any CCTV cameras would have to be clearly
marked with signage. Moreover the camera itself would also need to be
positioned in such a way that it was confined to entry security and
would not capture street images which might contain personal data of
members of the public going about their daily business.

The second part of your question 3 is based on covert cameras. Only
those bodies listed in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Scotland)
Act are permitted to carry out covert surveillance. In this regard I would
refer you to the Office of Surveillance Commissioners.

I refer also to our response dated 27 September 2018 to your FOI
18/1951137 review request where we confirmed that West
Dunbartonshire Council does not use surveillance including covert
surveillance to pursue or identify flytipping offences."

I would like to rephrase the questions so they can be answered in this internal review request:
i) If the citizens of the South Lanarkshire Council area give over their contact details to your authority when reporting flytippers, are their details involving their name(s) and address(es) mentioned to the offender(s)?
ii) Does your authority use covert and overt surveillance cameras to capture flytippers in the act?
iii) Would Article 8 (Section 2 for exemption to privacy) of the European Convention on Human Rights be applied as an excuse by your authority and the citizens of the South Lanarkshire Council area to deploy covert and overt cameras to catch flytippers in the act? To explain the context of the 3rd question, this has been advised in a 2013 ICO document (see link here: https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/consult...).

An extra link to my article is provided: https://jrainey94.wixsite.com/younglitte...

Can your authority confirm if all the rules and regulations highlighted in this internal review request as well as the article above are abided by?

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/n...

Yours faithfully,

Jonathan Rainey

Dunn, Bill, South Lanarkshire Council

Dear Mr Rainey

 

Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

Request for review

 

I acknowledge receipt of your email dated 5 June 2019 in which you asked
for a review as you were unhappy with the way that the Council dealt with
your request for information.  The reason why you are unhappy is that you
are of the view that the Council has not fully responded to your requests
for information.

 

The Council is processing your request for a review.  It will advise you
of the outcome of the review no later than 3 July 2019.

 

Staff not involved in the original decision will handle the review.

 

If you are not happy about the outcome of the review, you can appeal to
the Scottish Information Commissioner.  The Commissioner will decide
whether the Council has dealt with your request properly. 

 

For further details, please see the Commissioner’s website at
[1]www.itspublicknowledge.info.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Bill Dunn

Information Compliance Manager

Contracts and Conveyancing Team

Administration and Legal Services

Finance and Corporate Resources

South Lanarkshire Council

Council Offices

Almada Street

Hamilton

ML3 0AA

 

Tel (01698 45) 4564

Email: [email address]

 

South Lanarkshire Council

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. blocked::http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/
http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/

Grainger, Anne, South Lanarkshire Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Rainey

 

Thank you for your information request received by the Council on 6 June
2019.   Please find attached a response to your enquiry.

 

Sent on behalf of David Duffy, Divisional Environmental Health Officer

 

Anne Grainger

Administration Assistant

Community and Enterprise Resources

Montrose House

154 Montrose Crescent

Hamilton

ML3 6LB

 

Tel: 01698 455184

Email: [1][email address]

Council Website: [2]www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk

 

 

South Lanarkshire Council

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk/

Hamilton, Lynne FIN, South Lanarkshire Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Rainey

 

Following on from your email of 5 June 2019 to the Council, please see
attached response

 

Regards

 

 

Lynne Hamilton

Secretary to Executive Director of Finance & Corporate Resources

Floor 4, Finance & Corporate Resources

Council Offices

Almada Street

Hamilton

ML3 0AA

 

Telephone: 01698 454622

Email: [1][email address]

Website: www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk

 

South Lanarkshire Council

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]