27.10.14
Cambridge council threaten Tesco store with community protection notice
Cambridge City Council has threatened a local Tesco store with a community protection notice (CPN) if it does not deal with its litter problem.
CPNs are a new power introduced this year under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.
The store was accused by a councillor of continually ignoring requests to clear up the rubbish that had built up on its grounds. It is up to Cambridge City Council to issue the notice, which it is now able to do under new powers.
Peter Roberts, Cambridge City Council's councillor for waste, environment and public health, is quoted by the Cambridge News as saying: "We are potentially pursuing a community protection notice against Tesco.
"Tesco in Abbey has had a new fence and it's basically just rammed with rubbish.
"We've asked several times they clean their ground as part of the agreement they have with us as the city authority and they continually, despite their claims otherwise, carry on just leaving it."
Community protection notices are one of the measures that have replaced ASBOs and give local authorities, police and social landlords powers to issue orders to curb behaviour detrimental to the community. If the orders are breached they can result in a two-year prison sentence for adults or a £20,000 fine for businesses.
Labour Cllr George Owers said at the same the council meeting: "Tesco, to me, are the only organisation or business in Cambridge who persistently allow this to happen on their grounds and never clean it up. I hope the expanded enforcement team will look at using their increased resources to talk more to businesses, all kinds of businesses where we have similar problems, and if they persistently ignore us, use this power more widely than just Tesco."
A Tesco spokesman said: "We are working closely with the city council to tidy up the site. Contractors will be visiting the site shortly to undertake the necessary works and we will continue to monitor the situation on an ongoing basis."
(Image: c. Chris Radburn/PA Wire)
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