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£200k to clean up after fly-tippers
ILLEGAL dumping of waste is blighting the countryside and costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Kettering, Wellingborough, Corby and East Northamptonshire Councils spent a total of £203,359 on clearing up after the trail of fly-tippers in the in thr year up to March.
The cost was in relation to 3,420 incidents of illegal dumping reported – although just 672 of these (20 per cent) led to enforcement action and three in court convictions.
Among the items dumped were tyres, asbestos waste and dead animals.
In response to the figures released by the Countryside Alliance, environmental chiefs from all four councils have hit out at the culprits and called on the public’s help to catch them.
Kettering Council environmental services manager, Chris Stopford, who said fly-tipping was in decline, added: “The district has ample places where the public can legally and safely dispose of their waste.
“Why some people decide to dump waste in the countryside, I have no idea.”
The council dealt with 985 reports of fly-tipping, compared with 1,059 the year before.
It spent £50,626 on clearance during the period.
It took enforcement action 224 times and took three people to court, fining them a total of £415.
Corby Council’s lead member for environment Cllr Peter McEwan, said: “Fly-tipping is not acceptable.
“It’s unsightly and costs time and money.”
East Northamptonshire Council’s chairman of the waste and recycling working party, Cllr Glenn Harwood, said: “Fly-tipping blights our lovely rural district and is enormously expensive to clear up.”
Wellingborough Council’s community committee chairman, Cllr Peter Morrall, said: “Flytipping makes an area untidy and unsafe and we take all offences very seriously.”
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Weather for Kettering
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
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Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
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Comments
There are 3 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
Rikmeister
Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 03:16 PMMany people work and cannot get to the council tips before they close. Heres an idea. Put a small area outside the tip gate for people to leave their stuff after closing hours. Then the next morning the tip workers can actually earn their money moving it into the tip site. Or keep the tip open 2 hours later.
Aliss
Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 10:07 AMMaybe if the bins were emptied as often as the World Health Organisation says is the minimum frequency for basic public health, and the recycling depots (or "tips") didn't turn away half their visitors nowadays, we'd see a reduction...
DMT48
Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 09:58 AMIt's not just in the countryside these days - look around the town centre.
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