How to Deal With Environmental Nuisances Caused by Neighbours

Graffiti and fly posting, fly tipping and burnt out or abandoned vehicles are just some of the other issues which can cause problems amongst neighbours and can ruin a community.

These are all criminal offences and can become a blight on a neighbourhood and although these types of crimes may seem somewhat incidental to others that may be prevalent within a particular community, it’s these types of seemingly ‘minor’ incidents that can start the ball rolling into the rapid deterioration of a neighbourhood.

Dealing With Graffiti and Flyposting

Graffiti are drawings or words that have been written, painted, scratched or sprayed onto the surface of any building and flyposting is the illegal promotion of events which are often attached or glued onto buildings or lamp posts in poster form without the express permission of the local authority or the owner of the building or property in question.

Both graffiti and flyposting are criminal offences which can lead to fixed penalty notices of £80 being issued to the perpetrators by the local authority or police and, in some cases, a magistrate can impose even higher fines. If you witness graffiti or flyposting activity, you should report it to your local council.

Your Local Council is usually responsible for removing it from the likes of public buildings, street furniture and public monuments although in some cases such as with telephone boxes and bus shelters, for example, it’s the responsibility of the company who have placed them there to remove the graffiti or posters, although you should report any instances to your local authority who will get in touch with the appropriate companies, if it’s not their direct responsibility to remove it.

In the rare instance of where a person’s own property has been defaced by graffiti, many councils will offer a free or subsidised service to help with the removal although you would need to check first.

Dealing With Fly Tipping

Fly tipping is the illegal dumping of waste materials , often discarded bulky furniture, or any other form of rubbish in an area which has not been licensed for these purposes. Often it involves a vehicle simply dumping rubbish at the side of the road or in a nearby field or patch of waste land. This is a serious offence and fines of up to £20,000 can be imposed on fly tippers as well as their vehicles being seized.

If you witness a fly tipping incident, you should take down as many details as possible such as the time, date and location of where the incident took place as well as a description of the vehicle, including registration if possible and a description of the people who were involved as well as what was being tipped. Obviously, the more detail you can recall, the more likelihood of bringing the perpetrators of the tipping to justice.

You should contact your local authority as soon as you can after you have witnessed a case of fly tipping. It’s important to do this quickly as there could be dangerous items such as disused syringes, broken glass, asbestos or toxic chemicals in the rubbish or, alternatively, if the rubbish has been dumped near water, it could contaminate the local water supply. What you shouldn’t do is to interfere with the rubbish because of the dangers of the waste as outlined above.

Dealing With Abandoned Vehicles

There are several reasons why you may come across an abandoned or burnt out vehicle. Often, the vehicle in question may have been stolen and used as part of a crime. Other times vehicles are abandoned as they are unlicensed or untaxed and to put this right, it means spending more money than the value of the actual car itself so owners will simply abandon them whilst others will simply dump them as it’d prove more expensive to have them towed away and scrapped.

The real issues surrounding abandoned vehicles is that they could be part of a crime scene, they attract vandalism and rubbish, they can be used to commit a crime and there are also risks with possible explosions and resulting other injuries.

If you know or suspect a vehicle has been abandoned you should contact your local authority who will investigate matters further. They will usually work in conjunction with the police and DVLA to establish whether or not a vehicle constitutes being abandoned and will try to trace the owner before removing it. Obviously, if the vehicle has not been stolen or involved in any form of criminal activity and the owner can be traced, it is they who are liable for any removal or disposal costs.

If the vehicle is deemed to have some monetary value and the owner is traced, then they’ll be given a week’s notice to remove the vehicle themselves. However, if it’s deemed that the vehicle is only fit for the scrapyard, it can be removed by the local authority without any need to give notice to the owner.

We all want to live in neighbourhoods which are safe, clean and environmentally friendly so if you see any instances of any of the above, the sooner you contact your local authority, the sooner you can be rid of the problem and also prevent a particular problem from escalating.