Will fly-tippers be forced to join ‘chain-gang’ cleaning squads? Labour would enforce fixed penalty charges and crackdown on littering if party triumphs at next election
- Fly-tippers could get on-the-spot community service under Labour government
- Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed could introduce fixed penalty notices
Fly-tippers will be given on-the-spot community service and forced to clear up rubbish in their neighbourhoods if Labour win the next election.
Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed will today pledge to introduce ‘fixed penalty cleaning notices’ on those caught fly-tipping.
Perpetrators will be handed the instant penalty requiring them to join clean-up groups in the evenings or at weekends.
Mr Reed will, in a speech today, describe the proposals as ‘fresh thinking to tackle the tackle the scourge of anti-social behaviour’ to ensure offenders are ‘met with consequences’.
Labour would introduce ‘clean-up squads’ which fly-tippers and vandals will be required to join.
Fly-tippers will be given on-the-spot community service and forced to clear up rubbish in their neighbourhoods if Labour win the next election
Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed (pictured in last year) will today pledge to introduce ‘fixed penalty cleaning notices’ on those caught fly-tipping
Louts will be handed the fixed penalty cleaning notices when they are caught committing vandalism or illegally dumping rubbish.
‘We will establish clean up squads and require offenders to clear up litter, graffiti and vandalism,’ Mr Reed will say in a speech in central London.
‘Those who cause the mess will clean up the mess.’
The schemes will be managed by local authorities, rather than the probation service, a Labour spokesman confirmed.
Anyone who refused to comply with the on-the-spot penalty would then be hit with a fine, he added.
Mr Reed will also announce proposals to strengthen community sentences and increase their use.
He will say that, if Labour enters power, it will create ‘community payback boards’ and ‘victim payback boards’.
The panels would see oversee community sentences and select tasks for unpaid work that would benefit their neighbourhood.
Labour would introduce ‘clean-up squads’ which fly-tippers and vandals will be required to join
Latest Office for National Statistics crime data shows there were 1.1million recorded incidents of anti-social behaviour in the year to September, equating to 3,000 incidents a day.
However, the total was down 21 per cent compared with pre-pandemic levels.
In his speech in central London today, Mr Reed will say: ‘Anti-social behaviour can leave communities feeling broken and powerless.
‘It leads to a spiral of social and economic decline that a Labour government will not tolerate.
‘As Justice Secretary, I will strengthen community sentences to tackle anti-social behaviour and petty crime.
‘Under this government their use has fallen by a half because courts no longer have confidence sentences will ever be carried out.
‘Labour will address that by giving victims and community leaders a prominent role in the oversight of the system.
‘Sitting on Community and Victim Payback Boards, they will help choose the work low level offenders carry out to put right the wrong they’ve done.
‘Crucially, they will have eyes on the system; we will ensure that sentences once handed down are swiftly carried out.’
His speech will also pledge ‘end-to-end’ reform of the criminal justice system.