My Question to Cabinet on Behalf of Local Traders

Wiltshire Council

09 July 2013

Item 8 – Questions from Councillors

From Councillor Chris Hurst, Royal Wootton Bassett South Division

To Councillor Toby Sturgis, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, Development Management, Strategic Housing, Property and Waste

Question 5

Chris Hurst:

The Council’s recent drive to ensure that all businesses in Royal Wootton Bassett have a Waste Transfer Note has caused a great deal of concern amongst small businesses.

1. Many business owners believe that they should have received greater notice that they require these documents

2. They believe they should have been given the opportunity to get their affairs in order before being served with fines.

What does the Cabinet member have to say which will alleviate these concerns?

 

Council Response:

Fly tipping is an ever increasing problem and commercial waste constitutes a significant proportion of that waste. By undertaking these checks of how businesses handle their waste we actively pursue the market for illicit waste collectors who charge to collect and then dump the waste, and also deter businesses fly tipping waste themselves.

However, we are becoming increasingly aware of large volumes of commercial waste being disposed of through the household waste stream, either through Household Recycling Centres (HRCs) of through their home refuge collection which poses a significant cost to the council tax payer.

Businesses need to evidence that their waste is being stored, collected, transported and disposed of in an appropriate manner, and by authorised organizations and to keep this evidence for to years.

By undertaking these checks we are reassuring the businesses that o fulfil their duties that we support them, it will reduce the incidents of illegally dumped waste and reduce cost to council tax payers.

By offering Fixed Penalty Notices we allow the businesses to ‘draw a line’ under the matter and move forward in compliance with legislation. Many recipients of these notices have openly admitted that they have never paid anything to dispose of their business waste – one of them had been trading for over twenty years with all of their waste produced in that time collected at the cost of the council tax payer. In the vast majority of cases the cost of the FPN is far lower than the value of the waste collection and / or disposal costs that has – knowingly or not – historically been passed on to the council tax payer.

 

Chris Hurst Supplementary Question:

I thank Cllr Sturgis for his response. I would also like to warn other Councillors that this is an issue coming to your wards very soon. I concur that the disposal of waste must be managed properly and I do not doubt the Council’s right to impose the fines, but there was a better, more cooperative way of proceeding. I have raised two points on behalf of traders in Wootton Bassett and I would like a response to these concerns.

 

Cllr Sturgis: Traders were ‘given regular notice’ of their need to comply with the regulations and the Council had acted ‘very reasonably’ in this matter in his opinion.

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