Clause 18 - Extension of litter offences to all open places
Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Bill
10:00 am
Mr Alun Michael (Minister of State (Rural Affairs), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Cardiff South and Penarth, Labour/Co-operative)
The hon. Gentleman highlights something that is not specific to the clause but underlies a lot of what we are doing in the Bill. We are providing legislation that enables local authorities and others to undertake the enforcement that is necessary when other things fail. He is right to suggest that members of the public must use litter bins responsibly. As he said, where litter bins are not available—sometimes it is not because the local authority has not provided them, but because of security reasons—individuals have to play their part by taking their litter home.
We have a sense of the pubic distaste for the way in which the environment is degraded by petty incidences of people chucking away cigarette packets or sandwich packaging, and of the way in which a place becomes dirtier and feels more abandoned in those circumstances. The Bill therefore strengthens, extends and simplifies what can happen so that local authorities are much less constrained by bureaucracy when they carry out their current powers and duties. We spent quite a lot of time preparing the way for the legislation and consulted the organisations that want to make a difference.
The hon. Gentleman is also right about how we need to encourage people to behave responsibly. We sponsor ENCAMS specifically because it develops campaigns that can be used by local authorities and voluntary organisations to engage the community. I spent time recently with Thames21, the charity that was encouraged, as part of national initiatives, to look at the Thames. I can endorse the hon. Gentleman's experience. I have done litter picks with young people on the banks of the Taff in Cardiff. Seeing the extraordinary range of detritus and rubbish that is found in the Thames brings home just how much stuff ordinary members of the public dispose of in a way that degrades the environment for the rest of the population. He rightly raises that point as an underlying theme that runs through much of the Bill. However, we will probably not have time to speak about it at any great length.