The Neighbourhood Enforcement team tackle a variety of waste-related offences in the city. These range from domestic rubbish presented for collection incorrectly through to road-side stop and search exercises working with North Yorkshire Police (NYP), in order to disrupt illegal waste carriers and potentially more organised crime.

Waste offences are on the increase; where there’s muck there’s money still stands true today. Both residents and businesses must dispose of their rubbish lawfully, this is not all covered by Council Tax or Business Rates and therefore will involve a payment. Disposing of excess rubbish beyond that collected by the council’s waste collection service is the responsibility of the householder, and unscrupulous waste collectors are out to make a profit. They do this by taking rubbish for a lower price and then fly tipping it. The householder might also have committed an offence if their rubbish is found fly tipped and may be/will be liable to a fixed penalty notice (FPN) or a fine in Court following prosecution. The NEO team are raising awareness of householder responsibility for their waste through the Keep Britain Tidy “Crime Not to Care” campaign. Find out more at https://www.york.gov.uk/crimenottocare

Businesses cannot use the domestic waste collection; they are responsible for ensuring their waste is only passed to registered waste carriers and they must keep records for each transaction. This is known as their duty of care and there are no exceptions. The NEOs carry out advice visits to businesses but can issue FPNs where businesses have no records. Anyone that carries waste as part of a business or for profit must hold a waste carriers licence. The NEOs work with NYP to complete spot checks on vehicles carrying waste. You can apply for a waste carriers licence at https://www.gov.uk/waste-carrier-or-broker-registration

More information can be found at: https://www.york.gov.uk/info/20090/commercial_waste/1569/commercial_waste_disposal_responsibilities

In 2018 City of York Council reported just over 1500 incidents of fly tipping on public land. The NEOs investigate all fly tips that may contain evidence, monitor fly tipping hot spots and give advice to landowners about prevention techniques. They are also part of a multi agency task force called Operation Eyeball, which brings together all 8 North Yorkshire local authorities, North Yorkshire Police and landowners to tackle rural fly tipping through education campaigns, information sharing and Days of Action.

Small scale fly tipping can be discharged by an FPN but more serious offences can result in an unlimited fine and a custodial sentence. In 2017, York Magistrates court imposed its first custodial sentence on a local man for fly tipping offences. There are easy ways to dispose of rubbish lawfully, more advice can be found at https://www.york.gov.uk/crimenottocare

Anyone that witnesses fly tipping taking place should record as much information as possible, particularly descriptions and vehicle details and report it to us: https://www.york.gov.uk/info/20055/street_care_and_cleaning/270/fly-tipping_and_dumping

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