Wendy Morton
Main Page: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)Department Debates - View all Wendy Morton's debates with the Leader of the House
(1 day, 19 hours ago)
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Lucy Powell
My hon. Friend gives us a great advert for all that is going on in her constituency. These sorts of events are important for attracting visitors and tourists to her constituency, Yorkshire and beyond.
Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con)
The latest data from the Environment Agency shows nearly 17,000 reports of waste crime across England in the past year, with the west midlands sadly showing the highest concentration of incidents. Waste crime costs the UK economy around £1 billion annually, and no doubt the Labour-led Birmingham bin strikes are not helping. Can we have a debate in Government time on the problem of waste crime and the need to take action to tackle both waste crime and the bin strikes, which have been going on for over 100 days?
Lucy Powell
The right hon. Lady is right that fly-tipping and waste can blight communities and are a real problem, though I must say that incidents sky-rocketed and prosecutions fell under the previous Government. That is why we are taking steps through the Crime and Policing Bill to give police and local authorities more powers to take off-road vehicles off the streets and to take tougher action on fly-tippers.