Agenda item

To receive petitions and public questions in accordance with Standing Order 9.

The Mayor invited 2 members of the public to ask their questions:

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1)     Julia Irving

“It is well known that our natural environment is under serious pressure in the whole country and particularly in West Norfolk . Given this dire situation; can you tell me how many prosecutions the council taken forward under the Management of Hedgerows 1997?

Allied to this how many prosecutions has the council pursued under The Town and Country Planning  Act 1990,  of those who have cut down or damaged trees with Tree Preservation Orders?

Please give the total prosecutions since the start of the respective legislation.” 

Councillor Moriarty gave the following response:

“I first want to set the national context. The importance of trees is widely recognised in terms of climate change, carbon reduction etc, but hedgerows are also a vital part of our countryside. They benefit our wildlife, the environment and our landscapes.  

Hedgerows also play an important role in farming. They slow soil erosion and support an integrated pest management approach.   

In June last year, the Government launched a consultation on how hedgerows should be protected in England.

By the time the consultation closed in September, almost 9,000 people shared their views. This substantial response highlighted how much hedgerows are valued by all and there was overwhelming agreement that hedgerows are valuable assets for wildlife and the environment.  

There was consensus that hedges should be protected in law. This is what we were told the government will seek to do, in the context for farms through new regulations. 

So that shows the national picture, but your question was specific about our record on prosecutions.

Firstly hedgerows - our records on such matters go back only to 2005 when a new computer system was brought in. There would appear to have been 32 cases brought to the attention of our enforcement team in the intervening years. There were no prosecutions.

Of the 32 cases two replacement notices were issued. In 2019 the notice was complied with, and in 2023 the replacement of the hedge took place during the compliance period. Of the remaining 30 I can tell you they were all followed up but were a combination of no breach, de minimis, or officers would have approved the work in question. Prosecution in such cases is discretionary and I happen to agree with the view taken by officers at that time that it would not be correct to prosecute for a mistake when the work would have been approved in any case. I suspect the courts would have held a similar view and questioned the use of public money in such a manner.

In terms of trees, in the main these would fall under either a Breach – Tree in a Conservation Area (BTCA) 80 reported possible cases, or Breach of Tree Preservation Order (BTPO) 73 such possible cases.

Action was deemed appropriate in about 10 per cent of alleged cases. For BTCA three cautions were issued and one prosecution undertaken. In terms of BTPO there were five prosecutions and three cautions. In the cases of the balance it would have been the opinion of our professional tree officer that it would not be in the public interest to take action, in effect they considered that a retrospective application would have been successful.

Of those five prosecutions I can tell you that in the first case there were two defendants – one received a fine and costs of over £4,000 and the other some £1,200.

In the second case the fine was £2,500 with nearly £200 costs. The third was £1,000 total, the fourth nearly £6,000, the fifth some £8,500 and the most recent case a £600 fine, £500 costs and £65 victim surcharge.”

By way of supplementary, Ms Irving asked how the council will describe and evaluate the system in place to monitor and protect trees with TPOs on them.

Councillor Moriarty explained that he believed that generally officers reacted to reports made by the public, or where a tree was at risk with building work.  He undertook to follow up in writing.

2)     Alistair Kent

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“Cllr Squire in her report to full council refers to the “Read the Label” lorry sticker a strategy to both increase the percentage of waste sent for recycling and reduce contamination. To be of use, waste must be clean, dry and loose.

It is unlikely that one message will reach all recyclers. People have different attitudes so will respond to different types of messaging. Those people who contaminate because they don’t care are less likely to take note of ‘Read the Label’ than those who contaminate because they are so keen to recycle they put in items that they hope will be recycled. The converted recyclers, if in doubt, will go to the web page to check but lukewarm recyclers won’t. They will only recycle if it’s easy. So to gain best results different styles of messages are needed.

How do the council’s messages about recycling take account of different attitudes?"

Councillor Squire gave the following response:

You are correct that one message does not suit all for recycling. That is why the borough council has supported national recycle week for the past 7 years.

In 2017 we encouraged residents to look for recyclable items in their bathrooms. In 2018 an interactive puppet show toured primary schools in the borough to educate children on what could be recycled in the hope they could share this message with the adults in their life. By 2020 we were using social media to help get the message across and this year we focused on encouraging residents to Look at the Label.

The Look at the Label scheme is a targeted scheme designed to have a simple message that is easy to recall. It is aimed at those who do not engage often with the council and features visual markers which require limited interactions.

It is designed to build simple confidence and this is reinforced with our school visits where the message goes home in hard copy with the children.

The message offers some reinforcement for good practise and is designed to restrain over enthusiastic recyclers and confirm actions in confident recyclers. Unfortunately no message is going to reach those who simply refuse to participate.

Our social media is targeted to specific groups and localities through acorn research. With messages being seen in areas of west Norfolk where we believe recycling could increase. So not just focussing on the whole of west Norfolk but also focusing on specific pockets.

We undertake paid for promotion through Meta as while we have a good number of followers on social media, we understand that not everyone in west Norfolk follows us. Our promotion was seen by West Norfolk residents on Facebook and Instagram reaching in excess of 18,000 residents with over 28,000 impressions throughout the week.

We visited schools in Emneth and West Lynn during recycle week and the team continue to visit more each week. Younger people are already encouraged to think green and this should hopefully encourage them to do so in their own home.

Our waste and recycling team based themselves outside Morrisons in Kings Lynn and the market in Downham Market. This proved very popular with many people coming up to talk to them. The bright campaign assets created by the borough council graphics team were seen by many more people at these high footfall locations.

Our Look at the Label campaign can still be seen on our fleet of collection vehicles, and was also part of a nation campaign spearheaded by the Government so shouldn’t require checking on a web site.

An article was published in Your Local Paper during recycle week, this was followed up with an article in the Lynn News the following week including a video on their website. Our waste and recycling manager was also interviewed on BBC Radio Norfolk and the campaign was also covered in news bulletins on Radio West Norfolk.

Encouraging residents to recycle as much as they can, continues to be important to this council as it helps us towards our corporate priorities of protecting the environment as well as ensuring the efficient and effective delivery of our services.   We will continue to run different campaigns and target different groups.  We have set new recycling targets for the council which we hope to achieve, although we won’t know if we have done so until 2026.”

By way of supplementary, Mr Kent asked that given the amount of nappies which were deposited in the green bins were there any plans to liaise with parish councils, voluntary groups and other organisations to raise awareness of unsuitable items being added to the recycling.

Councillor Squire confirmed that the council did engage with a number of different organisations and would continue to do so to increase recycling.