To keep local residents informed about the flytipping issue on Gypsy Lane, I sent the following email to those who attended or took an interest in the meeting earlier this week. I will keep residents informed if there is any progress in future. My previous note of the meeting can be found here.

“Thank you for attending and taking part at the recent public meeting held at Frome Rugby club on 28th April (or for taking an interest if you could not attend) about the flytipping in the Gypsy Lane area, which I organised and co-chaired with cllr Peter Knibbs (Conservative, Beckington and Selwood), and which was probably the first public meeting ever dedicated to this serious issue.

Thanks also go to Ian Glover (MDC Enforcement officer, who talked at length and answered your questions) for the effort to organise the talk for the meeting and for being so informative, Peter Knibbs for co-chairing and agreeing to the meeting, and to Sgt Rachel Clark for speaking also.

I am not sure if you have heard from anyone else since the meeting, so I thought I would give people who have showed an interest in this a quick update about what I know.

Given the strength of public feeling over the flytipping problem in the Gypsy Lane area, and that the cost of clearance to the Council in that area alone is predicted to rise to £45,000 this year, I have asked Mendip District Council’s Corporate Manager for the Regulatory Services department, and the Cabinet member responsible, if the Council is able to invest in additional flytipping prevention measures, which should subsequently reduce clearance costs, and to consider additional measures on top of the work already being undertaken:

1. Increasing surveillance at and around ‘hotspots’, both covertly and overtly, as discussed extensively at the meeting;
2. Considering a Flytipping Reward Scheme to reward local residents for providing information which leads to a successful prosecution (or penalty). (Such schemes are recommended by DEFRA’s National Flytipping Prevention Group as a way of increasing reporting and investigation, and are being implemented by a number of other councils. Costs could be paid for out of predicted savings in clearance costs, from recovered court costs or FPNs, or even (perhaps) members’ CEF funding);
3. Considering a Neighbourhood Champion scheme to encourage local residents to work with the Council to improve the local environment where they live;
4. A campaign to increase residents’ and businesses’ awareness of their responsibility and Duty of Care for their waste, and the need for all waste carriers to be legally registered (with Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) and other organisations);
5. Increasing the opportunities to use waste as a resource through improved local recycling and re-use facilities, including supporting SWP’s new business plan for Household Waste Recycling Centres in Frome and elsewhere to accept business waste (including green waste) later this year;
6. Raising local awareness of the opportunities to use waste as a resource (with Frome Town Council, SWP and others), noting the restoration/extension of opening hours at Frome household waste recycling centre from April.

I have subsequently heard back from the Corporate Manager at Mendip that it is unlikely that the council would be in a position to allocate additional resources to combat the problems in Gypsy Lane, due to financial constraints, but that the issue is a number one priority and the council will do all they can with the resources available.  However, as the Council is due to spend c. £45,000 clearing up the flytipping in this area, I have asked the (Conservative) Cabinet member responsible to think of ‘investing to save’ and to reconsider – and I await a positive response.

Nevertheless, I understand that Mendip are now investigating additional surveillance measures, as was suggested at the meeting by many people, and are researching further the possibility of a Reward Scheme, as I suggested. Frome Town Council have also recently employed a Recycling Officer who aims to increase waste reuse and recycling, and awareness of waste as a resource, in the coming months.

Also, MDC’s New Homes Bonus Development Officer (Matthew Cheney) has agreed to come to Frome and talk to any active residents about a Neighbourhood Champions Scheme one evening – please let me know if you are interested in meeting him about that. He is talking to Frome Town Council’s Internal Affairs Committee at 7pm on 11^th June, which is a public meeting (at the Saxonvale Centre) about Neighbourhood Champions as well as the New Homes Bonus grant schemes (the ward based Community Environment Fund (which councillors administer £2000 in each ward) and the larger Local Legacy Fund) – please come along to that, and let me know if you want to know more.

I shall try and keep you updated on any progress on this. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

My notes from the meeting can be found here – http://adamboyden.mycouncillor.org.uk/2014/05/15/flytipping-update/

As agreed at the meeting, we should aim to have another meeting in a few months to (hopefully) allow Mendip to report back on progress.

Best wishes,

Adam Boyden

Mendip District and Frome Town Councillor, Frome College ward (Liberal Democrat)”