Fly-tipping taskforce pilot starts up in Sandwell

The new Environmental Response Team in Sandwell is a pilot scheme by Sandwell Council. It follows a case study trial in late 2021 at Bagnall Street Walkway and St Paul’s Crescent in West Bromwich, which showed that a multi-team approach was able to resolve a long-standing significant issue at a site.

Much of the fly-tipping had been embedded within overgrowth and the site had also become a health hazard, with overgrowth making much of the alleyway and surrounding paths inaccessible to older people and people with disabilities.

This multi-team approach is now being piloted to tackle similar sites across the borough so that they can then be maintained by routine street cleaning and grounds maintenance.

The Environment Response Team Pilot runs from January to August 2022 after which it will be assessed and the team will identify and target sites that require a detailed clean up.

This will include identifying the reasons why the site has become this way, engaging residents and community groups, cleaning up the site using the Environment Response Team, and empowering community ownership to ensure any issues are addressed.

Sites across all six towns will be tackled and the sites tackled in the pilot will be decided by three criteria.

These are that the site has significant waste which can be quickly or easily addressed, the site is visible to the public and the site has environmental health, accessibility or safety issues.

Leader of Sandwell Council, Councillor Kerrie Carmichael said: "We all want to live and work in a clean and safe Sandwell.

"Last year’s case study showed that while our teams do an excellent job, there are some occasions when a multi-team approach may be required to clean up fly-tipping hot spots.

"This pilot will demonstrate how efficient and successful this multi-team, collaborative approach can be.

"I am hopeful that the results of this pilot will lead to communities being able to reclaim pride in their own neighbourhoods and work together with the council to continue to maintain the improved areas."

Sandwell’s environmental protection officers will continue to issue £100 fixed penalty notices for littering and £400 fixed penalty notices for fly-tipping during the pilot.