Street Cleansing in Breckland

Welcome to the street cleansing department of Street Scene. We play an important role in keeping Breckland’s environment clean and tidy through a range of environmental services such as litter picking, street sweeping, litter and dog bin emptying and fly-tip and graffiti removal.

We work closely with a variety of partners, including resident and community groups to help enhance our services. However, there are a small number of individuals who fail to take responsibility for their wastes and as a result spoil Breckland’s beautiful landscape. To combat this anti-social behaviour we need to operate a strict street cleansing programme. We are also embarking on a new education and awareness campaign to address the issue of litter and fly-tipping. An important element of this campaign is to remind people that every Local Authority has the power to take legal action against individuals who drop litter and fly-tip.

We need residents and visitors to notify us of any public areas that need attention. We also want to hear about any illegal activities that are happening in your area such as fly-tipping so that we can investigate and take the appropriate action. We appreciate anything you can do to help.

Why can’t I place shredded paper in my black bin?

We are aware that in today’s society we are encouraged to shred certain documents which have personal details on them due to the risk of identity theft. But what do we do about recycling them?

Paper is sorted mechanically at the Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) run by Norfolk Environmental Waste Services (NEWS) at Costessey. The machine recognises items by their original shape so anything smaller than the size of a postcard is unlikely to be picked up. This means that shredded paper will fall through the grid and either be lost to landfill as contamination, along with other items such as bottle tops, or become entangled in moving parts and possibly cause machine damage.

If you can’t use the shredded paper for composting, animal bedding or packaging, the best thing to do is to take shredded paper to a paper recycling bank. This removes any problems associated with sorting, as the collection is of just one material which has already been separated from other items. Thanks for recycling!

Dog Fouling and Irresponsible Dog Owners

One of the biggest complaints received by Breckland Council each year is that of ‘dog fouling’ - owners allowing their dogs to foul the public highway and public areas and failing to clean up the mess.

We’ve designated our land a ‘poop scoop’ area under the Dogs (Fouling of Land) Act 1996. .  This applies to any land which is open to the air and which the public have access to. If a dog fouls on this land and the person in charge of the dog doesn’t clear it up, they are guilty of an offence.

We can give a Fixed Penalty Notice (£50.00) to anyone who commits this offence and if they don’t pay the Fixed Penalty Notice within 14 days of receipt they could be prosecuted and receive a maximum fine of £1000.

If you know anyone who is committing an offence under the Dogs (Fouling of Land) Act 1996, please contact the Breckland Dog Warden on 01362 656299.  We want to keep our beautiful area pleasant for everyone to use. All information we receive will be treated as confidential.

BE A RESPONSIBLE DOG OWNER

CLEAN UP AFTER YOUR DOG

Any requests to have dog mess cleared away should be forwarded to Street Scene:

Street Scene Helpline

Telephone: 01362 656878

Email: streetscene@breckland.gov.uk
Fax: 01362 699096

Write to: Breckland Council, Street Scene, Elizabeth House, Walpole Loke, Dereham, Norfolk. NR19 1EE