Environmental Crime Westminster Briefing
NICK WOOD-DOW CHAIRS WESTMINSTER BRIEFING ON ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME
Nick Wood-Dow, deputy chairman of Chelgate, is chairing a Westminster Briefing on environmental crime at the Commonwealth Club on Wednesday 14 December. This is the latest in a series of briefings for council officers and members on developing local strategies to reduce environmental crime, and will ask delegates whether the enforcement measures in the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 are sufficient for local needs.
On the panel with Nick in the morning will be guest speakers including Peter Chapman, chairman of the Sentencing Committee of the Magistrates Association, Alice Ellison, Environment Project manager at London Councils, and Brian Stuart, head of the National Wildlife Crime Unit.
They will update delegates on the latest ways of creating cleaner neighbourhoods, e.g. tackling fly-tipping, litter, waste crime and graffiti. They will remind delegates that residents who hire a skip for domestic waste disposal are ultimately responsible for the safe disposal of that waste, a little-known fact of law, plus the latest situation on fixed penalty notices and prosecutions.
The afternoon session will be chaired by Jim McClelland, former editor of SUSTAIN magazine and now a consultant with Chelgate Environment. On the panel with Jim will be Nigel Tyrell, head of Environment at the London Borough of Lewisham, and Alan Shaw of the Environmental Crime Team at Waltham Forest Council. They will discuss practical solutions, using case studies of best practice in tackling environmental crime and protecting the local environment. They will also investigate the role of schools, businesses, communities and councils in environment protection, and look at whether the new Localism Act will strengthen the resolve of communities to stay clean and green.
"Local residents care deeply about the state of their local environment, and successive governments have put in place various methods of enforcement to support the police and magistrates in dealing with environmental crime," commented Nick who is also deputy chairman of the Environment Council, a national charity promoting dialogue in sustainability. "I hope that this Westminster Briefing will look again at how prevention as well as enforcement methods are available to local councils, supported by the Environment Agency and the government."
