Neighbourhood Pollution
Above we have looked at certain specific types of pollution, i.e. pollution from carbon emissions, pollution from waste and pollution from noise.
There are other types of pollution that impact upon our neighbourhoods and legislation has been introduced with the intention of making them cleaner, safer and quieter. The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 (The Act) deals with such diverse matters as:
¨ Litter
¨ Graffiti
¨ Fly-posting
¨ Noise from audible alarms
¨ Abandoned cars
¨ Abandoned shopping trolleys
¨ Light pollution
The Act provides Local Authorities with a new range of powers ( as opposed to duties ) and the extent to which they are used is up to each local authority.
Local Authorities should be looking to enter into “partnership” with local businesses and other interested parties with a view to exercising their powers under the Act in the most effective ways to benefit the community.
For convenience store retailers there is an opportunity to unite with other members of their communities to persuade their local authority to exercise it’s powers in the most effective way by targeting those issues causing most problems in the community.
Some powers in the Act have already featured above in specific types of pollution, namely fly-tipping and abandoned vehicles as examples of waste pollution and audible alarms creating a noise nuisance. Other powers include :
Litter
- making it an offence to drop litter anywhere, including private land, rivers, ponds and lakes.
- giving local authorities powers to issue litter clearing notices requiring businesses and individuals to clear litter from their land.
- strengthening existing powers for local authorities to require local businesses to help clear up litter they generate ( street litter control notices ).
- formally defining cigarette butts and chewing gum as litter.
- raising on-the-spot fines for littering to a maximum of £80.
Graffiti
- extending defacement removal notices ( introduced by the Anti-Social Behaviour Act
2003) to ensure that street furniture is cleaned within 28 days by the owners.
- improving local authorities powers to tackle the sale of spray paints to children.
- increasing on-the-spot fines to a maximum of £80.
Fly-posting
- enabling fines and clean-up charges to be issued to the beneficiary of the poster.
- enabling local authorities and the Environment Agency to recover their investigation and clean-up costs.
- raising on-the-spot fines to a maximum of £80 for those caught fly-posting.
Abandoned shopping trolleys
- enabling local authorities to recover the costs of dealing with abandoned shopping
- trolleys from their owners.
Light pollution
- extending the list of statutory nuisances to include light pollution.
All PBS information sheets are designed to provide the detail you need to implement best business and employment practices. They are not a detailed commentary on the current law and where advice is needed in a specific case you should contact PBS for expert consultation.
Environ 4