Dereham's 'dreadful' littering hotspot to be discussed at meeting

Littering on Safari Way in Dereham will be discussed at a town council meeting next week (Image: Harry Clarke)

Harry Clarke, Labour Breckland councillor for Dereham Withburga and Dereham town councillor is set to bring up the issue of litter on Safari Way, Dereham.

Images show the stream next to the path, which is next to the old Cranes site, covered with a swathe of litter.

According to the councillor, the issue had been raised with Breckland Council just before the coronavirus pandemic struck, but because the ownership of the land was unclear and the resulting lockdown, the matter was not resolved.

Town and district councillor Harry Clarke. (Image: © ARCHANT NORFOLK 2016)

Mr Clarke said: "After hearing concerns from residents and visiting the site, I reported it a long while back as it's an unsightly site.

"Due to coronavirus lockdown and questions over the ownership of the site, the matter has not been resolved.

"The first question to ask is, who owns the land?

"Breckland Council is a litter authority but has no direct duty to keep private land clear of litter. Breckland Council does however have the power to issue a Litter Clearing Notice."

Littering on Safari Way in Dereham will be discussed at a town council meeting next week (Image: Harry Clarke)

To serve a littering notice, Breckland would first need to identify the owner of the land, which can be difficult according to the Labour councillor.

He said: "This is a situation which often arises; boundaries registered with the land registry are not always the historic boundaries for a parcel of land.

"Pieces of land are often omitted from the registry entry where they have no value but will incur liability, such as ditches or hedges.

Littering on Safari Way in Dereham will be discussed at a town council meeting next week (Image: Harry Clarke)

"Breckland Council has powers under the Town and Country Planning Act to enter land, tidy it up and recover the cost from the owners.

"Dereham Town Council does not have these powers."

Town's 'dreadful' littering hotspot to be discussed at meeting (Image: Harry Clarke)

The issue of littering on Safari Way will be discussed at Dereham Town Council's heritage and open spaces meeting on March 23 at 7pm, which will be streamed live on Youtube.