County Councils and roadside litter picking
District Councils, not County Councils, are responsible for highway litter-picking
Local government is some areas of England is in the hands of a “Unitary Authority” responsible for all local government matters.
In other areas the old two tier systems still applies. The County Council is responsible for certain functions including “highways” while the District Council is responsible for other functions including “waste collection”.
But who is responsible for litter picking the highways?
The Environmental Protection Act S86(9) says which local authority bodies are responsible for complying with the EPA S89 duty to ensure their relevant highways are kept clear of litter. The list includes “District Councils”. It does not include “County Councils”.
It appears therefore that in two-tier areas it is the District not the County Council who is responsible for litter picking the the highways except of course any motorways and certain Highways England Trunk roads.
This means that while the County is responsible for cutting the verges on main roads the District has to pick up the litter.
Unitary and other local authorities in England
Peter Silverman
14th August 2015
Categories
Big issues
- On-the-spot fines
- M25 Contract
- Street cleaning spend
- Litter Code’s response times
- Dumbing down the statutory duty
- HE’s failure to prosecute
- EA’s fail to prosecute
- HE Trunk Roads (APTRs)
- Safe roadside litter picking
- Littering from vehicles
- HWRCs (c)
- Trade waste (c)
- HE’s Stakeholder Panel
- Environment Bill
Litter & the law
Info
- Who is responsible for this highway?
- Search Gov.UK
- Hansard
- Parliament TV Archive
- MPs’ questions on litter
- Fix-my-street
- Government’s Waste Strategy for England – Dec 2018
- Government’s Litter Strategy for England
- Local Government in England outside London
- Find a Local Authority
- Campaign for Freedom of Information
- Our FOI requests
- Archive
- Links
- Scotland (c)
- Contact your MP
- Litter – the big Westminster cover up