Litter, flytipping and enforcement
In Tower Hamlets we all want to enjoy safe clean streets.
If you need help with enforcement due to
irresponsible behaviour by others please contact us and ask someone from our
Street Care Team to visit you.
Litter - Not in our street!
Tower Hamlets residents are being encouraged to tackle littering
in their community through the launch of a new anti-littering
campaign - ‘Litter – not in our street!’
The campaign raises awareness about littering, highlighting that
people who drop rubbish are affecting everyone in their local
community. It aims to empower residents to take pride in their area
and help them to stop local littering and report problem areas
through the Find it, Fix it team. Residents are also
encouraged to take direct action through volunteering and community
clear-ups.
How you can get involved
Find it, Fix it Team
The Find it, Fix it service will tackle eyesores across the
borough. In rapid response vehicles, the teams identify and fix
problems such as littering, graffiti, fly posting, overhanging
vegetation and fly tipping. Residents can report problems,
including littering, for the Find it, Fix it team via Streetline on
020 7364 5004.
Volunteering and community
clear-ups
Assistance for clean up projects and local litter picks can be
sought via the council volunteer coordinator, Sam Dundas-Dunbar.
Tel 020 7364 6696 or email sam.dundas-dunbar@towerhamlets.gov.uk or
visit the clean and
green volunteering page.
Outreach and school education programme
The outreach and school education programme is run through the
council’s waste contractor Veolia. Please contact Rachel Telling
(Rachel.Telling@veolia.co.uk)
for how to arrange a community outreach event or details of the
school education programme.
'Lost in Litter' is the most
recent programme delivered in Tower Hamlets Primary
schools.
The council's committment to reducing litter
Litter is unsightly, illegal and can be
dangerous. To assist you to get rid of items responsibly and reduce
litter on the streets, we provide litter bins on public highway
locations across the borough. These are regularly emptied by
our street cleansing contractor.
The maximum fine for littering is £2,500. An
offence is committed if someone throws down, drops or otherwise
deposits anything in any place (including over water) that is open
to the air and to which the public have access. Cigarette butts and
chewing gum are defined as litter as well as other items commonly
dropped such as sweet wrappers and newspapers.
Anyone seen littering in the street may be
issued with a fixed penalty notice (FPN) of £80 by a Street Care
Team Officer. The FPN is issued so that you may discharge
your liability for prosecution by paying the penalty and knowing
you will not receive a criminal record. However, if you do not pay
the FPN, the case will go to court.
Flytipping
Flytipping (dumping rubbish on a street or
other area) is an offence which carries a maximum penalty of up to
£50,000, or for very serious offences, a fine of up to five years
in prison, or both.
We keep the streets safer and cleaner by removing tips of
rubbish that have been dumped on public roads. We aim remove
reported flytips by the end of the next working day. However, if
the tip is very large or contains hazardous materials, this has to
be reported to the back office for investigation. If so, this may
take a little longer to deal with.
Fly-tips on private land should be dealt with by the land
owner.
In addition to removing fly-tips from public land we use
techniques such as vehicle stop and search and directed to catch
people fly-tipping. Reducing flytipping is a government
priority.
For further information on flytipping visit
the Defra website.
To report a flytip, please call us or use the
appropriate online reporting form:
Contact us
London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Waste Management
Mulberry Place (AH)
PO Box 55739
5 Clove Crescent
London
E14 1BY
Tel: 020 7364 5004
Fax: 020 7364 6885
Email: generalenquiries@towerhamlets.gov.uk