End of the road for fly-tippers

Measures will be put in place to restrict access to vehicles in Sunnings Lane and Little Gerpins Lane. This will include a width restriction at the Southern end of Sunnings Lane and a closure from the junction with Dennises Lane to Sullens Farm. Little Gerpins Lane will be closed to traffic from the junction with Berwick Pond Road to Bonnetts Wood.

In recent years the area around these roads has fallen victim to huge industrial scale fly-tips, with criminal gangs dumping large lorry loads of waste. A public meeting in March and subsequent article in the May 2017 edition of Living in Havering magazine discussed these problems.

The Council currently uses a number of anti-fly-tipping measures including: joint police operations with covert officers, round the clock monitoring of roads and the use of solar powered surveillance cameras. However, further calls for more long-term action from residents has led to these latest proposals.

Steve Moore, Havering Council’s Director of Neighbourhoods, said:

“Much of the fly-tipping experienced in Little Gerpins Lane and neighbouring Lanes is carried out by serious organised criminal gangs and not casual chancers. This means that traditional means of combatting fly-tipping, like using CCTV cameras, are therefore not effective when these gangs use false plates and stolen trucks.

“I encourage residents to work as a team with the Council to tackle the problem. In 2015 to 2016 our staff collected more than 1,200 tonnes of fly-tipped rubbish, with the current total cost of removing fly-tips and enforcement fast approaching one million pounds a year.”

A public consultation on the proposed road changes is now open and will close on Friday 4 August.

The decision on the scheme will be made through our Highways Advisory Committee process. The responses to this consultation will be discussed at the committee’s meeting on Tuesday 5 September 2017 at 7:30pm in Havering Town Hall, Romford.