The Clean Neighbourhoods Act becomes law

The Clean Neighbourhoods Act has become law after receiving Royal Assent.

The Act was fast-tracked through the remaining stages of the Parliamentary process ahead of the formal dissolution of Parliament before the general election.

The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act contains a range of measures to improve the quality of the local environment by giving Local Authorities and the Environment Agency additional powers to deal with:

• fly-tipped waste
• litter
• nuisance alleys
• fly-posting and graffiti
• abandoned and nuisance vehicles
• dogs
• noise,
• nuisance from artificial lighting and insect, and other issues affecting the local environment.
• It also puts the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) on a statutory basis.

A copy of the Act is available at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/pabills.htm

The Act includes the following changes.

Crime and Disorder

• requires local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships to take anti-social behaviour affecting the local environment into account in developing crime and disorder reduction strategies.
• gives local authorities new powers to deal with alleyways affected by anti-social behaviour.

Fixed Penalty Notices (Fines)

• makes greater use of fixed penalties as an alternative to prosecution, in most cases giving local authorities the flexibility to set their own rates;
• gives parish councils the power to issue fixed penalties for litter, graffiti, fly posting and dog offences;

Nuisance and Abandoned Vehicles

• gives local authorities the power to remove abandoned cars from the streets immediately;
• creates two new offences to help local authorities deal with nuisance parking: offering for sale two or more vehicles, or repairing a vehicle on the road as part of a business.

Litter

• makes it an offence to drop litter anywhere, including private land and rivers, ponds and lakes;
• gives local authorities new powers (litter clearing notices) to require businesses and individuals to clear litter from their land;
• strengthens existing powers for local authorities to require local businesses to help clear up litter they generate (street litter control notices);
• enables local authorities to restrict the distribution of flyers, hand-outs and pamphlets that can end up as litter;
• confirms that cigarette butts and discarded chewing gum are litter.

Graffiti and fly-posting

• extends graffiti removal notices (as introduced by the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003) to include fly-posting;
• improves local authorities powers to tackle the sale of spray paints to children;
• strengthens the legislation to make it harder for beneficiaries of fly posting to evade prosecution;
• enables local authorities to recover the costs of removing illegal posters.

Waste

• amends provisions for dealing with fly-tipping by:
  • removing the defence of acting under employer's instructions
  • increasing the penalties
  • enabling local authorities and the Environment Agency to recover their investigation and clear-up costs
  • extending provisions on clear up to the landowner in the absence of the occupier.
• gives local authorities and the Environment Agency the power to issue fixed penalty notices (and, in the case of local authorities, to keep the receipts from such penalties):
  • to businesses that fail to produce waste transfer notes
  • to waste carriers that fail to produce their registration details or evidence they do not need to be registered
  • for waste left out on the streets (local authority only)
• introduces a more effective system for stop, search and seizure of vehicles used in illegal waste disposal; and enabling courts to require forfeiture of such vehicles
• introduces a new provision covering the waste duty of care and the registration of waste carriers
• introduces a new requirement for site waste management plans for construction and demolition projects
• repeals the divestment provisions for waste disposal functions to provide greater flexibility for local authorities to deliver waste management services in the most sustainable way
• reforms the recycling credits scheme to provide increased local flexibility to provide incentives for more sustainable waste management.

Dogs

• replaces dog byelaws with a new, simplified system which will enable local authorities and parish councils to deal with fouling by dogs, ban dogs from designated areas, require dogs to be kept on a lead and restrict the number of dogs that can be walked by one person.
• gives local authorities sole responsibility for stray dogs (previously this responsibility had been shared between local authorities and the police. The change will come into force only when the transfer of resource has been agreed).

Noise

Gives local authorities new powers to:

• deal with burglar alarms
• impose fixed penalty fines on licensed premises that ignore warnings to reduce excessive noise levels
• gives local authorities greater flexibility in dealing with noise nuisance.

Miscellaneous

• puts the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) on a statutory basis.
• enables local authorities to recover the costs of dealing with abandoned shopping trolleys from their owners
• extends the list of statutory nuisances to include light pollution and nuisance from insects
• amends the contaminated land appeals process.
• increases the penalty for various offences relating to pollution

More information is available via the DEFRA site

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