Overview
The offence of 'leaving litter' (Section 87 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990) states that if a person drops, throws, deposits or leaves anything so as to cause defacement in a public place, they could be committing a littering offence.
Litter
The Council must clear litter and refuse from public places. This includes:
- streets
- parks
- playgrounds
- pedestrian areas
If a piece of private land is littered the owner is responsible for clearing the litter. Often the problem is determining who owns the land. Please note, we will not sweep back streets or private land.
Schools must clear litter and refuse from their own grounds but schools have no responsibility for clearing the litter outside the school.
Litter is often mistaken for fly tipping. Fly-tipping is the dumping of rubbish illegally. If the rubbish can be removed with one person and a litter picker then this is not classed as fly tipping .
The street cleansing team work towards a 6 week service rota for street cleaning and litter clearance. Work is unlikely to be done outside of this schedule due to resource and funding.
Please note, in the autumnal season between September and December, the service will focus on leaf clearance on council land.