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Tackling environmental crimes in the Royal Borough

Specialist officers will be tackling littering, flytipping and other environmental offences as part of a crackdown to make the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead a cleaner and safer place to live, work and visit.

From Monday 5 October 2020, authorised officers from District Enforcement, a specialist environmental enforcement company, will be working under the direction of the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, to deliver the enforcement service.

They will patrol the streets and public parks, including town centres and environmental hotspots, and will issue fixed penalty notices (FPNs) to anyone they observe committing, or have evidence of committing, an environmental crime.

A fixed penalty notice could be issued for offences such as dropping litter or cigarette waste. Enforcement action can be taken against offences such as flytipping and commercial waste offences.

Councillor David Cannon, lead member for public protection and parking, welcomes the partnership saying: “We all want the community we live in to be clean and tidy but flytipping, littering and dog fouling are some of the most reported issues to councillors. This partnership will see the council take a more targeted and proactive approach to tackling these anti-social activities.

“Residents tell us how frustrating it is to see litter, cigarette butts and dog poo in their communities and the negative impact that offences such as flytipping have on their local communities. This proactive enforcement will help target the small minority of people who continue to commit environmental offences which will benefit everyone.

 “We want residents to take pride in where they live, and we want all visitors to feel welcome and impressed at how clean and tidy the borough is. We hope that by taking these steps we will help to change people’s attitudes and behaviour and reduce the amount of litter and dog poo on our streets and in our communities.”

Colin Buchanan, head of operations at District Enforcement, welcomes the partnership saying, “District Enforcement is excited to be working in partnership with the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead and to playing our part in keeping such a beautiful borough clean and tidy, with our sole ambition to reduce the amount of littering and dog fouling on the streets.

We have a dedicated team of officers who will patrol the whole borough daily and who will take a fair and proportionate approach to the issuance of a fixed penalty notice for any environmental crime offences they witness.”

The service provided by District Enforcement is cost neutral as they don’t charge a fee, instead their income is generated from the payment of fixed penalty notices (FPNs). The contract is for an initial one-year period with a possible six-month extension at the end of that period.

You can find more information about the council’s new policy of issuing fixed penalty notices by visiting: https://www.rbwm.gov.uk/home/environment-and-waste/fixed-penalty-notices-environmental-crimes.

To report a problem with flytipping or littering, please visit the relevant report it page on our website:

Flytipping: https://www.rbwm.gov.uk/home/transport-and-streets/report-problem-flytipping

Littering: https://www.rbwm.gov.uk/home/transport-and-streets/report-problem-littering