The District Council continues to tackle environmental crime

Officers from District Enforcement will support the District Council’s team of environmental protection officers (EPOs) by providing additional feet on the ground conducting daily patrolling of Newark and Sherwood.

By significantly increasing the number of enforcement officers across our district, the aim is to capture the perpetrators of these environmental crimes and serve them with the fines they rightly deserve and to deter others.

District Enforcement officers will be helping issue Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN’s) to tackle a range of offences including littering and the enforcement of dog control offences including dog fouling.

A Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) is a penalty payment for committing an environmental crime; this can be littering, fly-tipping or failing to comply with a request to supply documents such as a Waste Transfer Notice.

Any income made from environmental enforcement would be reinvested in environmental related expenditure such as education schemes and fly tipping campaigns in accordance to littering legislation.

Councillor Emma Oldham, Portfolio Holder for Biodiversity and Environmental Services at Newark and Sherwood District Council, said: “We all want to live in a district we are proud of. It is unacceptable to blight our environment with litter, fly-tipping, or dog fouling. In partnership with District Enforcement, we're bolstering our efforts to combat environmental crime. By deploying additional enforcement officers on the ground, we aim to swiftly identify and penalise those responsible for littering (including chewing gum), fly-tipping, and other offenses. This decisive action will uphold the integrity of our district and safeguard its natural beauty."

This initiative will build on the hard work the District Council has already delivered over the last few years to crackdown on environmental crime. During 2023 1799 FPNS were issued by the District Council and Waste Investigations, Support and Enforcement (WISE), an external agency the Council partnered with during an environmental crime enforcement pilot scheme, with the success of this leading to the latest partnership with District Enforcement. 128 fly tip-fines were also issued, and the District Council prosecuted 12 offenders of environmental crimes in court. The Council also routinely works with partners from the Environmental Agency and Police on license checking operations to clampdown on waste carriers who are operating illegally.

Dyl Kurpil, Managing Director of District Enforcement had the following to say about the partnership: “District is delighted to be working with NSDC in continuing to deliver cleaner, safer neighbourhoods. District’s end to end process ensures that offenders are held accountable for their crimes whilst providing a visible deterrent against anti-social behaviour. Our focus on education and engagement offers long term positive behaviour change which in turn, will benefit all residents and future generations.”

Anyone can report environmental crimes such as fly-tips, littering, dog fouling or graffiti on the Newark and Sherwood District Council website: https://www.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk/your-home/waste-and-recycling/street-scene/ or by calling the District Council on 01636 650 000.