Closed
Rubbish piling up on driveway of private driveway
Reported in the Rubbish (refuse and recycling) category anonymously at 16:39, Mon 22 June 2015
Sent to Brent Council 1 minute later. FixMyStreet ref: 651456.
No 112 Thurlby Road HA0 4RS has rubbish piled up next to a old banger of a car which is never used. This creating a health hazard with crows, flies and rats/mice finding a haven.
Updates
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This is something that will need to be dealt with by the environmental health department. That isn't covered by FMS because it tends to involve accusations against third parties.
Although this will actually go to the general customer support email address, and it looks like you will also need to use them to email environmental health, there is a significant risk that they will read this as a removal of rubbish from private land issue, and therefore reject it as not a council responsibility.
Don't hold out too much hope. I've seen a lot worse where Brent has not felt justified in enforcing against the owner or occupier.
This is not from the council.
Posted anonymously at 17:25, Mon 22 June 2015
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Surely it's a health hazard?
Posted anonymously at 22:11, Mon 22 June 2015
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There are basically two types of legislation that councils will use against the owners/occupiers of private land that has junk or rubbish on it:
1) The Control of Damage by Pests Act 1949, which relates to infestations by rats and mice. Most councils will use this, but typically only when the rodents are actually nesting in the rubbish.
2) legislation to deal with eyesores. Very few councils use this. The only ones in London that I know to regularly use it are Barking & Dagenham, and Southwark (google "barking eyesore gardens"), Historically, at least, Brent has shown no signs of using that legislation.
The legislation gives the council a power to act, but no duty to act; the council are the ones that decide whether to use the legislation.
Until late last year, the preferred way of doing this was using section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act, which deals with land open to the air which is "detrimental to the public amenity". Reasons often given for councils (not specifically Brent) not using that legislation was uncertainty about their ability to recover they costs from the owner or occupier.
The newer legislation is the power to issue Community Protection Notices (a sort of ASBO on property) under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. It remains to be seen whether councils are more willing to use this than section 215, but Brent's analysis of it seems to suggest they will only use it for the sorts of thing they currently handle under other legislation: http://democracy.brent.gov.uk/ documents/ s30386/ coo-crime-and-policing-act.pdf
As I said, the photograph shows a situation that is mild compared with many sites which don't get enforced in Brent, so my guess is that they will not enforce in this case. If this were used as a precedent, they would probably be overloaded with enforcement work.
An older report, on a similar topic, that as far as I know was never actioned is: https://www.fixmystreet.com/ report/ 394703
Anyway, as noted at the start of my first reply, this is outside the scope of FMS and public health issues should be addressed to the environmental health department.
(Getting past the customer support contact centre may prove difficult, as they will, most likely, either give their standard fly tipping response email and forward it to Veolia, who will then do nothing as it is private land, or they will directly reject it for that reason. I'm trying to get enforcement action about an overflowing private drain spilling sewage across the pavement, but customer support are trying to redirect me to Thames Water, who only do public sewers, even though I specifically asked for Environmental Health.)
Posted anonymously at 08:29, Wed 24 June 2015
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I meant to add that this sort of thing is usually associated with rented property, and is one of the reasons that Brent introduced landlord licensing (extending it to all HMOs throughout the borough, and to all rented housing in some areas, including central Wembley).
At the moment, it is not clear to me whether there is a mechanism to get licences revoked when they would not have taken action under other legislation. On suspects that landlord licensing, like fly tip enforcement, is under resourced.
Posted anonymously at 08:37, Wed 24 June 2015
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Thanks for this. Doesn't look promising from what you've said. However this is a HMO property I believe.
Posted anonymously at 09:24, Wed 24 June 2015
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Still open, via questionnaire, 17:20, Mon 20 July 2015
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Got an email from the council to acknowledge receipt but nothing since.
Posted anonymously at 17:20, Mon 20 July 2015
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FixMyStreet is being updated in Brent to improve how problems get reported.
As part of this process we are closing all reports made before the update.
All of your reports will have been received and reviewed by Brent but, if you believe that this issue has not been resolved, please open a new report on https://report.brent.gov.uk/
Thank you
State changed to: Closed
Posted by Brent Council at 16:39, Thu 13 April 2023
This report is now closed to updates from the public. You can make a new report in the same location.