R.E.A.C.T (Respond, Enforce and Clean Team)

Background

REACT was formed in late 2007 to provide East Devon District Council with a tool with which to tackle environmental crimes, such as fly-tipping, littering and graffiti. These are serious crimes that cost the taxpayer up to £150 million per year in England and Wales to clear up. Fly-tipping carries a maximum penalty of £50,000 or up to 5 years imprisonment: an indication of how seriously the government considers this crime.  

What do they do?

Unlike most authorities, we decided that the team would also take on a cleansing role alongside enforcement activity. REACT are responsible for clearing fly-tips, litter and graffiti as well as trying to catch and prosecute those responsible for them. Doing both these jobs helps them provide us with a quick and efficient service, especially in the more remote and rural areas of the district. They also conduct a range of educational activities to improve awareness of waste and litter related issues and legislation; this includes ongoing poster campaigns to help convey messages and issues to the public and assisting community groups undertaking neighbourhood litterpicks and tidy ups.

The 5 strong team aim to clear fly-tips within 24 hours wherever possible; they provide cover 7 days a week. This enables us to resolve problems as soon as possible and impact on the public and the environment is kept to a minimum.

Enforcement

The team are authorised to undertake a range of enforcement tasks. These include issuing Fixed Penalty Notices for littering, dog-fouling, graffiti and waste related offences. They can gather evidence and prosecute those guilty of fly-tipping and businesses not disposing of their waste correctly. Their day-to-day duties include undertaking duty of care inspections of businesses, searching fly-tipped waste for evidence of where it came from and responding to reports from members of the public.

If you discover or witness any environmental crime please report it to us on 01395 517528.

When contacting East Devon District Council please take a moment to think about what you are going to say before calling. Your call is important to us but with the high volume of calls a possible lack of information could result in either delayed reaction time or even the named problems not being found.

The use of the following 5 W's can help everyone:

Who - you are and if possible a contact telephone number

What - is the problem

Where - the problem is (road names and reference or prominent points reduce the time spent searching for problems)

When - the problem was first noticed /occurred

Which - actions, if any, you or anyone else have taken and any other relevant information

EDDC works in partnership with the local Police. If you have information that is valuable to them, please call 08452 777444. We also work with neighbouring local authorities and the Environment Agency to tackling fly-tipping within East Devon and the surrounding areas.

Page last updated on 29 July 2011