8th December 2016
Last night I spoke at Llanelli Town Council about the Welsh Assembly’s new Landfill Disposals Tax, due to come in to effect in April 2018.
A key difference with the new legislation is that ‘unauthorised disposals’ colloquially known as fly tipping will also be affected by the tax. This has the potential to be of great use in discouraging fly-tipping which has been a scourge in Llanelli for quite some time as perpetrators will see increased penalties.
In the Town Council meeting of 7th December I proposed to the Council that we investigate ways to get this information to the public. Without sufficient knowledge of this new legislation it will not be an effective deterrent.
This is a great start to tackling fly-tipping, but is not enough on it’s own. Earlier this year, in conjunction with Keep Tidy Wales, me and Councillor Louvain Roberts went litter picking in Morfa and spoke to residents. A number of key concerns were raised, with some residents saying that the refuse collection system was no good for large families who were restricted on the refuse they can dispose, and that plastic bins would help prevent bags being ripped open by stray animals.
Along with other Labour Party activists, we are keen to tackle the issues of littering and fly tipping. Last month, Labour Activists Suzy Curry and Andre McPherson successfully took Carmarthenshire County Council to task on an area of the Tyisha ward, plagued by fly-tipping which has since been cleared.
Only with a Labour controlled County Council will we be able to get on top of this problem.
Visit the Llanelli Labour Facebook Page to see the video and the results of excellent campaigning.