1. What plans does the Welsh Government have to combat fly-tipping in Newport West? OQ56410

Thank you. Welsh Government funds the Fly-tipping Action Wales programme, led by Natural Resources Wales. The programme continues to support Newport City Council in tackling fly-tipping. This includes supporting them with investigating and prosecuting fly-tippers. Work is ongoing to identify solutions to stop fly-tipping at particular locations within the Newport area.

Thank you for that answer, Minister. I know you will be aware that I've raised the serious situation with fly-tipping in the Marshfield and Duffryn areas of my constituency on many occasions. The infamous 'road to nowhere' is a hotspot for it on an industrial scale—hundreds of tonnes of rubbish stretches as far as the eye can see, and it recently featured on the BBC's Panorama programme 'Rubbish Dump Britain'. These scenes are a national embarrassment, and the proximity to the M4 means this spot is used by those firms who claim to get rid of rubbish legally but instead dump it illegally. The criminality is shocking. Local groups who are intent on cleaning the area have found evidence of waste from areas such as Bristol, the midlands, other parts of Wales, and much further afield. Dedicated local residents have formed a group to try and tackle the problem, and it features interested parties. However, progress is painfully slow and the scale of what's happening means that local government is stretched. The pollution caused and the sheer amount of dumped rubbish means that the clear-up costs will be high, and they need Welsh Government support. I'd urge the Minister to please look again at what intervention the Welsh Government can do at the 'road to nowhere' to clean up the area, and I'd urge the Welsh Government to work with Newport City Council and residents to find a purpose for the land, which is the best way of protecting the environment and preventing this from happening in the future.

Thank you, Jayne Bryant, for those comments around Newport City Council and the unfortunate level of fly-tipping. You'll be aware we did meet last year in relation to this. My officials have spoken again with Newport City Council regarding the 'road to nowhere' site. I think the last site partnership meeting that was held was in January. And it was very clear from that meeting that Newport City Council had made some good progress in identifying some of the criminals who are involved with tipping waste at the site, and they were undertaking various enforcement actions, such as vehicle seizures, and they were issuing fixed-penalty notices also for small-scale tipping. They were also preparing prosecution cases for court. But I appreciate that the site does remain vulnerable to further tipping. The council are the owners of the land, so I would urge them to take further steps to ensure further tipping doesn't take place there.

As I mentioned in my opening answer to you, the Welsh Government funds Fly-tipping Action Wales, and I know that they've offered Newport council the use of surveillance equipment, and also to have some training on legislation and investigative techniques, at no cost, to try and help prevent further fly-tipping at this site and others in Newport. So, I would encourage Newport council, and all other local authorities, to fully utilise the tools and support that are available to them. You mentioned a local group was also working with the local authority, and I think it is absolutely essential that we all work together, so that we can protect our environment and our communities from these terrible crimes.

I'd 100 per cent back what Jayne Bryant has just said, actually. Local campaigner, Michael Enea, has also raised the issue recently, about this particular site—the 'road to nowhere' near the Celtic lakes. The 100 tonnes of rubbish is a sight for sore eyes—it's an appalling state of affairs, and it really needs—. I was just wondering when it's actually going to be cleared, and how you're working with the local council to ensure that's done soon, because, at the moment, it's not safe.

There are also hotspots coming up all over South Wales East at the moment of fly-tipping, which has been made worse during the pandemic. So, I was just wondering also how this Government is going to make sure that it works with councils, and maybe a future Government, to make sure robust measures are in place and a framework is in place to ensure this sort of thing doesn't happen again, and also to clear it up as soon as possible if it does happen. Thank you. 

Thank you. I mentioned various ways that we have worked with the council in my earlier answer to Jayne Bryant, but I would really encourage, as I say, all local authorities to fully utilise the tools and support that are available to them from Fly-tipping Action Wales, or make sure that they fully utilise the legislative tools that we've recently provided, such as the fixed-penalty notices that I mentioned that Newport council had brought forward—several of these—for small-scale fly tipping. 

I think it is disappointing that the national fly-tipping statistics that we recently published still show that there's a significant number of local authorities in Wales, and that does include Newport, that have not prosecuted any fly-tipper in their areas. You referred to increased fly-tipping during the COVID-19 pandemic, and obviously the last figures that we published were for 2019-20, so that didn't include, obviously, or didn't reflect any potential impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. The fly-tipping figures from April 2020, when we first went into lockdown, are still being gathered from local authorities, but it will be very interesting to see if there has been an increase. But, as I say, I would just urge all local authorities to use everything that we've provided in support and legislative tools in the first instance.