Councillor Tim Rowkins

Chair of the City Environment, South Downs and The Sea Committee

Brighton and Hove City Council

14 March 2024

Dear Tim,

I recognise you’re getting a flurry of emails from me, so sorry for adding to your inbox again.

My reason for writing is because I’m receiving a spike in casework correspondence at the moment about fixed penalty notices (FPNs) issued to residents and businesses in the city, which appear to be very disproportionate to the incident. Recent examples include a resident issued with a £400 fine for leaving their recycling by the side of a communal bin because the bin was overflowing and the recycling would not fit inside. Another message I received was from a vulnerable resident who says they received an on the spot fine after leaving some recycling temporarily outside of their home as they had to make several trips to the communal bin, and propped cardboard on the private pathway between trips.

In early January I was copied into a message thread between councillors, in which a business owner who had been issued with a £400 fine was thanked for drawing councillors’ attention to their concerns around appeal mechanisms and proportionality, and it was noted that you had been asked to review the administration’s policy in this area. Would you be able to update me on where things are at with the review, and whether any changes are being considered as a result?

Given the current increase in missed collections in the city, the matter has become even more pressing, since overflowing bins is likely to become a bigger problem, and more people might be tempted to place bags of household recycling next to them.   

I do recognise that fly-tipping in the city is a very real problem which costs the local authority, but in the cases I’m being contacted about, educating residents and businesses about best practice, and / or issuing a warning feels more appropriate than a £400 fine for a first offence.

In light of current collection issues, I would also like to know whether enforcement officers are being given guidance on proportionality in cases where an ‘offence’ is related to an inability to place waste or recycling in a communal bin because it has not been collected. An amnesty on issuing FPNs in this type of situation whilst collection problems are so acute feels reasonable, with the local authority focusing its limited resources on more significant incidents of fly-tipping, and incidents where there is clear intentionality, which is a blight in our communities

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Best wishes,