Council pledges to clamp down on city's fly-tipping problems
EXTRA efforts are being put into catching the culprits of fly-tipping in Derby.
Figures released yesterday showed that, during 2010-1, Derby City Council spent £370,000 cleaning up mess dumped by people but did not prosecute anyone.
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Derby City Council spent £370,000 cleaning up fly-tipped rubbish in 2010-1.
The council said that is something it is addressing.
Michael Kay, head of environmental health and licensing said: "We continue to investigate fly-tipping complaints.
"Since April this year, we have carried out over 120 investigations. In each of these cases, the fly tipping has been removed.
"Where we can identify individuals, we will take action against them. This often involves serving legal notices and carrying out removal works in default and recharging against the property – around 75 this year so far – or serving fixed penalty notices on individuals, which we have done 12 times this year so far.
"Although we have not prosecuted many people in Derby for fly tipping previously, we are putting more resources such as staff and CCTV camera equipment, into the service to catch people. We do have a number of potential prosecution cases at the moment which we are pursuing."
The authority logged 8,587 instances of rubbish being dumped during 2010-1 and spent hundreds of thousands of pounds clearing it.
Figures from the Countryside Alliance show that the council took enforcement action 1,824 times and that none of those resulted in any fines or successful prosecutions.
The council is now encouraging the public to help them catch the criminals.
Tim Clegg, director of Streetpride, said: "Fly-tipping is a concern for communities in Derby and Streetpride is committed to working with local people to remove fly tipping and litter to maintain the street scene to a standard which will promote community pride.
"We provide a comprehensive refuse collection service and a civic amenity site at Raynesway and there is no need for people to fly-tip. We ask residents to report any fly-tipping that they see to Streetpride on 0333 200 6981 or Streetpride@derby.gov.uk."
2 Comments
by password0111
Friday, September 02 2011, 12:24PM
“Whats the point we caught fly tippers dumping waste on the lane where we live we even followed them home to confirm there address we gave the council and the police all the details and provided witness statements ready for court only for the council to decide not to proceed? its a joke!”
by Objectionist
Friday, September 02 2011, 9:05AM
“Whilst people look to save money by using Travellers to remove debris, this problem will not go away. Just take a look at any site that has been occupied by itinerants..... It is a mess when they move on with the detritus of their often illegal activities left in unsightly piles.
In addition, if the council charge for legitimate removal of washing machines etc, there will be some people who don't want to pay for some reason..... It reminds me of when the scheme to pay for scrapping a car was introduced, people just pretended they had sold them and abandoned them in country lanes etc...
Whilst CCTV might be one solution, they cannot cover every area..... I have a solution though.......
The council could set up a page on it's website that people could submit photos to of places where stuff has been dumped..... If any of the debris is identified as belonging to someone or some business, they could be notified of it's location and given 48 hours to remove it and get it into the correct facility. If not, they face a £5000 fine......
Just a thought.....”