DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENTRoom A224Romney House 43 Marsham.Street London SWlP 3PY

081-276 8862

To addressees listed at annex A

Dear Sir/Madam

l. I attach a copy of a statutory Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse which theSecretary of State has today laid before Parliament. The Code provides practicalguidance to local authorities and others who will be placed under a duty, by virtue ofPart IV of the Environmental Protection Act lgg0 (ttthe Acttt), to keep land clear oflitter and refuse.

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2. The Government shares public concern about the level of litter and refuse in someareas of the country. It has therefore taken steps in Part IV of the Act to tackle theproblem.

3. The Act will place a duty on local authorities, the Crown, designated statutoryundertakers, designated educational institutions and occupiers of any relevant landwithin litter control areas, to keep their land clear of litter and refuse, so far as ispracticable. In the case of relevant highways, there is also a duty on the relevantauthority to keep the land clean.

4. Section 89(7) of the Act requires the Secretary of State to prepare and issue a codeof practice giving practical guidance on the discharge of the duty. Section 89(10)requires any person to whom the duty applies to have regard to the code in dischargingthe duty.

5. A draft Code was prepared by the Department with assistance from the Tidy BritainGroup, and a Code of Practice Advisory Group (COPAG), made up of representativesfrom local authority associations, statutory undertakers and others. The draft waspublished for consultation on 23 February.

The Code laid before Parliament

6. Having considered all representations submitted as a result of the consultation andin the light of advice from COPAG, a number of changes have been made to the Codenow laid before Parliament.

7. The changes which have been made are largely to clarify points ofmisunderstanding, but also take account of discussions which have taken place abouteducational institutions' and statutory undertakers' land. In summary the.se are:

(i)

(ii )

The introductory section has been expanded to explain in greater detail thebackground to the legislation;

The section on the objective of the Code explains that the times referred to inthe zones do not relate to how often the land should be swept but to theresponse times - how quickly the land should be restored to a clean conditionshould it degrade to a specified standard;

(iii) The section on the duty spells out more explicitly what the legislation requiresof the different types of body under the duty to clean, and explains how theCode fits in with that duty;

(iv)

(v)

(vi)

Many local authorities seem to have missed the important qualification to theduty 'so far as is practicable'. The Code now includes a section onpracticability, and gives examples of circumstances where in the view of theSecretary of State it would not be practicable to expect the duty authority tomeet the standards in the Code;

The new section on enforcement explains how the legislation is enforced, andthat any person contemplating enforcement action should have regard to whetherthe duty authority has been discharging their duty taking into account therelevance of the Code in the circumstances;

The cleanliness standards have been amended to remove the examples whichwere thought to be misleading. The section includes a paragraph recognisingthat it may be difficult, or impossible in some circumstances, to achieve GradeA. The reference to the size of areas which many people thought would bedifficr-llt to assess has been removed, and replaced with a reference to thephotographs in the Code;

(vii) The section on zones has been considerably amended for clarification and toinclude four new zones for specialised areas. The Code identifies two keyprinciples, and suggests how duty authorities might approach zoning their land.The one major point that has been changed is the night period which should bediscounted in assessing compliance with the standards. This has been changedfrom'midnight to 6am' to '8pm to 6am'1

{viii) The explanation of the standards for highways has been simplified, and again wehave made more of the practicability point. Because of the practicaldifficulties of litter clearance from the central reservations of motorways andstrategic routes, the Code has not suggested time limits..for clearance, butsuggests they be cleaned whenever they are subject to maintenance work;

(ix) There is a new zone for educational land and three new zones to deal with theparticular problems associated with cleaning on railway embankments andcanalside land; and

There are a number of changes to the appendix, which does not form part of thestatutory Code. These include an expanded introduction and ,A"ction section.There are also new sections on complaints procedure, grass cutting, fly-tipping

(x)

and litter bins. The section on litter bins does not contain any prescriptionabout the size or spacing of bins.

8. The phrase 'if the duty authority receives notification', which appeared incategories 4, 6 and 7 of the draft Code, implied that the authority needed to clear thelitter or refuse only if notified of its presence. However, the duty requires the bodyto keep the land clear of litter and refuse regardless of whether it has been notifiedof its existence by a third party. The phrase could mislead readers about the impactof the legislation and has therefore been removed.

9. The Code of Practice is the result of many months of work by the Government,the Code of Practice Advisory Group, the Tidy Britain Group and other organisations.The Government is convinced that the Code which has emerged contains practicalguidance in the form of standards which are well within the reach of most localauthorities and other persons subject to the duty, although it is recognised that somemay have some catching up to do. The Government believes that the Code as finallydrafted proposes the best and most achievable practical methods of cleaning up ourpublic places.

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10. The duty under section 89 will be brought into effect, by commencement orders,from I April 1991. From that time, in discharging their duty, local authorities andothers, in discharging that duty, will have to have regard to the Code of Practice. TheDepartment will be consulting on the various orders and regulations to be made underPart IV, which for the most part will be brought into effect from I April 1991.

11. The Government intends to make a further announcement shortly about theinteraction between the litter and refuse clearing duty and the compulsory competitivetendering requirements of the Local Government Act 1988.

Yours faithfully,

* 4V-tw*TGRAHAM DUNCAN' Local Environmental Quality Division

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ANNEX A

County and District Councils in England and WalesLondon Borough Councils

Association of County CouncilsAssociation of County Councils (Welsh Counties Committee)Association of District CounciisAssociation of Districc Councils (Welsh Office)Association of Larger Local CouncilsAssociation of London AuthoriciesAssociation of Metropolitan AuthoritiesLondon Boroughs AssociationNational Association of Local Councils

Aerodrome Owners AssociationAssociated British PortsAssociation for the Care of Rural EnglandAssociation of British Chambers of CommerceAssociation of Chief Police OfficersAssociation of Conservation OfficersAssociation of Direct Labour OrganisationsAssociation of London Borough Engineers and SurveyorsAssociation of London Cleaning OfficersBar Association for Commerce Finance and IndustryBar Association for Local Governmenc and the Public ServiceBlack Country Development CorporationBristol Developmenl CorporationBritish Airports Authority picBritish Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and AttractionsBritish Franchise AssociationBritish Independent Grocers AssociationBritish Ports FederationBritish Railways BoardBritish Retailers Associacion/Retail ConsortiumBritish Tourist AuthorilyBricish Waterways BoardBus and Coach CouncilCADW Welsh Historic MonumentsCardiff Bay Development CorporationCentral Manchester Development CorporationChamber of Commerce and IndustryChartered Institute of Public Finance and AccountancyChartered Insticute of TransportCivic TrustCivil Aviation AuchorityCommission for the New TownsConfederation of British IndustryConfederation of British Industry (Wales)

Confederation of Business OrganisationsConsumers Association

Council for Environmental ConservationCouncil for the Proteccion of Rural England

Council for the Protection of Rural Wales

Country Landowners AssociationCountryside CommissionCountryside Commission for Wales

Crown Estates OfficeFarmers Union of Wales

Federation of Private Residents Associations

Food and Drink FederationForestry CommissionForum for Private Business

Friends of the Earth LtdFriends of the Earth CYmruHistoric Buildings and Monuments commission for England

Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment

Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management

Institute of MuniciPal TransPortInstitute of Wastes ManagementInstitut,ion of Environmental Health OfficersInstitut,ion of Works and Highways Management

Joint Airports Committee of Local Authorities

Leeds DeveloPment CorporationLondon Docklands Development Corporation

London Regional TransPortLondon Tourist Board and Convention Bureau

Magistrates AssociacionMerseyside Development CorporationNational Association of British Market AuthoritiesNational Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux

National Association of waste Disposal contractorsNational Consumer CouncilNational Council for Voluntary Organisations

National Chamber of TradeNational Economic and Development OfficeNational Farmers UnionNational Farmers Union (Wales)

National Federation of Fish Friers LtdNational Federation of Housing Associations

National Market Traders FederationNational Playing Fields AssociationNational TrustNational Union of Ratepayers AssociationsNational Yacht and Harbour Association LtdNature Conservancy CouncilNew Towns AssociationOpen Spaces SocietyRoyal Society for Nature ConservationSheffield Development CorporationSports CouncilSports Council for Wales