Sefton Council continues to fail residents on fly-tipping and dog-fouling in 2023
Sefton Green Party has recently made a Freedom Of Information Act request to Sefton Council concerning fixed penalty notices for dog fouling and fly tipping.
The results for 2023 reveal that Sefton issued just 4 notices for dog fouling (just half last year’s abysmal number) and 14 for fly tipping (scarcely up from 5 in 2022).
Dog Fouling: Location (FPNs Issued)
- Bootle (2)
- Southport (2)
Fly tipping: Electoral ward (FPNs Issued)
- Ainsdale (2)
- Derby (2)
- Dukes (2)
- Litherland (7)
- St. Oswald (1)
Given that Sefton Council reported to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 3,903 fly-tipping incidents in Sefton in the year to March 2023, just 14 fixed penalty notices issued to offenders for 2023 shows that the current method of enforcing fly tipping laws simply isn’t working.
Neil Doolin, spokesperson for Sefton Green Party, comments:
“Unfortunately, it’s more of the same. Following the FOI request I made last year, local media highlighted the very low numbers of fixed penalty notices issued for fly tipping and dog fouling across Sefton. In response, Sefton Council’s controlling Labour group then staged events highlighting how serious Sefton Council were taking the matter. The council efforts to deal with the issues have come to nothing.
“In 2021 Sefton Council reported issuing over 25,000 penalty charge notices per year for car parking offences. If 25,000 plus fines can be issued for car parking offences in one year then why just 4 for dog fouling and only 14 for fly tipping?
“It’s clear the Council’s current strategy simply isn’t working. It’s clear the Labour Party who have now controlled Sefton for over 12 years simply don’t have the ideas to tackle the problems.
“We know that Local Governments are underfunded but in this case this looks very much like a failure of leadership on the part of Sefton Labour Party to address the issue. They simply can’t hoodwink residents anymore by trotting out the tired old mantra of blaming the Tories as a way of avoiding responsibility for their continued lack of leadership and failure to address these issues.
“I have written to Marion Atkinson, new Labour leader for Sefton Council and Phil Porter, CEO for Sefton Council highlighting our findings and asking for the immediate actions below that can be taken to address the problems:
- In a time of a cost of living crisis, remove the £10 charge for collecting bulky items. Incidents of fly tipping will immediately improve.
- Implement the use of mobile CCTV units in fly tipping hotspots to catch offenders and highlight across the media as a deterrent to others who think they can spoil local communities by dog fouling and fly tipping
- Employ additional council officers to work on reducing incidents of dog fouling and fly tipping and increasing convictions.”