Petition Give councils faster and stronger powers to stop illegal dumping and unauthorised development.
Communities across Wales are seeing land cleared, hardcore and waste tipped, and access tracks created over a weekend, with no planning permission and no warning. By the time enforcement action can be completed the damage is done. Notices can be appealed, temporary powers lapse after 28 days, and injunctions take time and public money that local authorities cannot always commit.
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Coedpoeth and Minera have suffered unauthorised works and illegal waste dumping on former mine workings near protected landscape, with lorries tipping waste overnight. Even temporary stop notices have failed to stop it, showing planning enforcement powers are not fit for purpose. This pattern repeats across rural Wales.
The UK Government has announced measures for England to shut down illegal waste sites, including drones, more Environment Agency officers and sharply increased fines. Waste and planning are devolved, so the Welsh Government can match this and close the planning gap that lets such sites open in the first place.
We call on the Senedd to urge the Welsh Government to strengthen planning enforcement, including: extendable Stop Notices, removing compensation risk, stronger penalties with powers to seize vehicles, cost recovery for restoration, and a duty of co-operation between authorities, NRW and police.
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