Fly-tipping increased during lockdown across parts of East Sussex
According to the paper considered at a virtual meeting of the East Sussex Joint Waste Committee on Friday (July 3), the number of fly-tipping reports in Hastings, Rother and Wealden began to rise as lockdown went on.
The committee oversees the work of the Joint Waste Partnership which sees Wealden District, Hastings Borough, Rother District councils share waste collection services through a contract with Biffa.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdIn a report considered by the committee, a spokesman for the partnership said: “A gradual but significant increase in the number of fly-tips has been recorded since the beginning of May.
“This trend is being investigated and is also being considered by the county-wide Waste Strategy and Resource Group so comparisons can be made with neighbouring councils.”
Figures in the committee papers show there were an average of 23 reports per week from March 3 to 29, rising to 35 average reports between March 30 and April 26.
The average rose to 43 between April 27 and May 24, while the past four weeks (May 25 to June 21) have seen an average of 52 reports per week.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe papers go on to say there is a speculative link between the rise in fly-tipping reports, the closure of county council tips and the temporary suspension of bulky waste collections, a service which is currently in high demand.
During the meeting, the committee discussed the wider impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the councils’ joint waste partnership.
At its height, more than a quarter (27 per cent) of Biffa staff were either off-sick or shielding. This figure exceeded 20 per cent at each depot, each day, between March 23 to March 27.
Due to this high number of staff absences, a number of services were temporarily suspended including new bin deliveries, non-urgent fly-tip removal, bulky waste collections and the collection of garden waste.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdAccording to the councils, this was done so that the remaining staff could be redeployed to core services such as bin collections and street cleansing.
While bulky waste collections were temporarily suspended in Hastings and Wealden, Biffa continued to collect any pre-booked collections before the service was completely suspended.
Waste Partnership Manager Madeleine Gorman told the committee, the councils are in the process of agreeing temporary changes to the contract to reflect Biffa’s response to the pandemic.
These changes – which Ms Gorman said were not contentious – were because the contract in normal circumstances sets out expectations on what services would be provided, which could not be fulfilled during the pandemic.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdMs Gorman said: “The key point of it is, if the pandemic re-escalates or if we face anything like this again in the future, we will be very well-positioned to handle all of the contractual and financial implications quite simply, because we have agreed to the principles of how we should handle them.
“We don’t think this is quite over yet and we don’t know what our new normal will really look like. I think it is important that we as a team, managing a contract with fairly clear black lines must deal with the reality.
“The contract, if necessary, will be subject to further variations, but members can be reassured that there is a good management structure that is looking to protect the councils’ interests in a fair and reasoned way with Biffa.”
A message from the Editor, Gary Shipton:
In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news, I am asking you to please purchase a copy of our newspapers.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdWith the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspapers.
Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.
Stay safe, and best wishes.