Solihull Council has hit the headlines over the last few days for failing to issue a single fine for dropping litter in 2020/21. This compares to 77 fixed penalty notices in 2019/20. They claim that the lack of enforcement is due a decision to prioritise the Council’s public health response to Covid.

It is hard to disagree that Covid must be the first priority but there is also a danger that the Council will use it as a way of excusing poor service across the Council and in any case Solihull Council’s failure to tackle littering and fly-tipping in the borough goes back many years – long before Covid.

Sam Mather, Labour candidate in Meriden Ward said. ‘The failure of our Conservative-run Council to protect the environment goes back many years. To blame it all on Covid is a joke. In many ways their record on tackling fly-tipping is even worse than their record on littering’.

Sam continues ‘From 2018 to 2020 there were 4767 recorded incidents of fly tipping across the borough. The total number of both prosecutions and fixed penalty notices from Solihull Council totalled a pathetic ‘0’ – yes zero!  In neighbouring Birmingham, for the same period, they successfully prosecuted 227 offenders and issued some 838 fixed penalty notices. It can be done.’

Solihull Labour is calling for greater priority for environmental protection and argues this should include:

• Making the enforcement of littering legislation a statutory duty for Councils

• Reviewing the level of fines and fixed penalty notices

• Review location and number of litter bins

• Ensure that the deployment of wardens, in the Autumn, is borough wide and where people live not just within the Town Centre and other high profile locations.