Lister on Putney

Litter, flytipping, and aviation plans........

We've all seen how untidy a street can look when just one householder starts putting out their refuse on the pavement in advance of their collection day.

But if new powers announced in the Queen's Speech become law, councils will be able to hit offenders with an on the spot fine of £100.

We are hoping too that councils will be allowed to keep the income from these fines. This could help to pay for more enforcement officers as well as new initiatives to encourage people to report flytipping and other forms of littering.

We are just as keen to use the new powers for cracking down on those commercial premises who do not have proper arrangements for having their waste collected. This too will include on the spot fines as well as much stiffer penalties for illegal dumping of waste.

So if you see a flytip - call the council straight away. The sooner we know about a problem, the quicker we can deal with it.

That other great environmental headache - aircraft noise - is keeping the council's lawyers busy at the moment.

We will be in the High Court on December 13 trying to overturn the Government's plans for a third runway at Heathrow.

A lot of people think that because Stansted has been selected for a new runway before Heathrow there is nothing to worry about. Sadly the reverse is the case. If for any reason Stansted cannot go ahead - for example if the no frills airlines refuse to pay for the extra runway - then you can be sure Heathrow will move rapidly up the batting order.

In fact ministers are so desperate to squeeze extra capacity into Heathrow now that they are planning to tear up the current protection offered by runway alternation.

We also have a separate challenge on night flights coming up - this too could be before Christmas.

The history of Heathrow is littered with broken promises and uncontrolled, incremental growth. Whether it is more flights before breakfast - or more during the day - the message from Putney is 'enough is enough'.

Edward Lister

elister@wandsworth.gov.uk

Edward Lister is the Leader of Wandsworth Council and a member for Putney's Thamesfield ward.