Environmental Action Unit
The Environmental Action Unit is part of the Environmental Services Directorate and is responsible for carrying out enforcement work in relation to enviro-crime.
The main areas of work undertaken by the unit include:
The duties carried out by Enforcement Officers include:
- Carrying out patrols to identify offenders
- Issuing Fixed Penalty Notices to and/or prosecuting offenders;
- Erecting warning signs in problematic areas
- Requiring occupiers and owners of certain types of land to keep it free of litter;
- Investigating incidents of fly-tipping and prosecuting offenders where they can be identified.
- Taking legal action against residents or businesses for failing in their ‘duty of care’ when they do not ensure that their waste is taken away by an authorised waste carrier and that waste is subsequently fly-tipped.
- Requiring businesses to ensure their waste is properly stored so as to prevent any escape of waste.
- Requiring certain businesses that generate litter to clear up litter and put in measures to stop area getting littered again.
- Sending letters to owners/occupiers to request they remove the harmful accumulations of rubbish from their land
- Serving legal notices on owners/occupiers to require them to remove harmful accumulations and maintain the land in a clean and tidy condition
- Removing the accumulations and recharging owners/occupiers
- Talking to residents and businesses on a one to one basis to educate and inform them about enviro-crime matters.
- Carrying out education programmes to encourage people to take measures to safeguard their own local environment.
For further information on enforcement work, please see our fact sheets on: