Dartford Borough Council is working hard to stamp out fly tipping and littering to make Dartford a cleaner place to live.
Enforcement
The borough's innovative enforcement team, which was set up in 2004, has already made a huge impact, reducing the clean-up cost of fly tipping by £60,000 and driving tippers out of the borough.
The Council have now set their sights on graffiti vandals and are working alongside Kent Police to put a stop to this form of anti-social behaviour. They're using the new on the spot graffiti fine of £80 as well as covert investigation techniques to capture the culprits at work. The Council's Criminal Damage and Environmental Crime task group are also looking into a range of preventative methods to combat anti-social behaviour.
Deep Clean
The Deep Clean programme was introduced in 2003 and since that time it has grown from strength to strength. The Deep Clean team travels the borough carrying out week-long clean-ups of specific areas. They tackle everything from graffiti and litter to overgrown vegetation and uneven car park surfaces.
Local residents, schools and organisations are encouraged to get involved by joining community litter picks. A recent clean-up of the 314 acre Dartford Heath saw more than 50 residents turn up to lend a hand in the giant community litter pick.
Collection, Recycling and Cleaning
The borough's new recycling scheme, box-it, which launched last year, has driven up Dartford's recycling levels from 14% to 21%. And a new refuse collection, recycling and environmental cleansing contract with Enterprise MRS Ltd could see this figure rise even higher as there's the potential to introduce a glass collection service in the future.
