Conservative Councillors Support Clean Up Patrols, Leader of the council with some of her colleagues getting their hands dirty. Di Collins with colleagues get out and around the district cleaning up our streets. 

Epping Forest District Council has new neighbourhood response officers and an additional Environmental Response Vehicle

SENIOR councillors where not afraid to get their hands dirty when they joined their new environment service team on a recent clean-up patrol. Littering, fly-tipping, and graffiti are just some of the problems facing district council and leader Di Collins, chairman Penny Smith and environment portfolio holder Mary Sartin on their trip around the district said,

We have listened to what the residents had to say about this problem and we hope this will be the start to a successful clean up initiative around the whole district.

They joined new neighbourhood response officers and an additional Environmental Response Vehicle which have been deployed by Epping Forest District Council to deal with small, visible problems of rubbish and waste dumping. The money for them, £250,000, has been raised through efficiency savings.

Environmental officers have powers enabling them to require people to give them their names, and they can also issue fixed penalty notices and carry out investigations.

Council leader Di Collins said: We have a beautiful district and the vast majority of our residents want us to keep it that way. Unfortunately, there is a small minority that feels differently and it is a constant struggle to clean up after the fly-tippers, vandals and graffiti vandals. The introduction of our new environment and neighbourhood officers along with the Environmental Response Unit will make a major contribution to tackling such problems.

Click here to see more on district website