Clampdown launched on Northumberland fly-tippers who blight their neighbourhoods

The council noted a slight increase in the number of recorded fly tips when household waste sites had to close at the beginning of lockdown, mainly in some ‘hot spot’ urban areas in the south east of the county.

As the rise was predominantly focused in two residential areas the council will be deploying its resources to those areas to quickly tackle this problem.Coun Glen Sanderson, cabinet member for environment and local services, said: “Over the last two years, through partnerships with a number of town councils, the numbers of staff dealing with fly tipping has increased.

“We have more enforcement officers and more front-line clean up staff to remove rubbish quickly and to try and tackle the people who are causing this type of problem.

“At the beginning of lockdown, when the household waste sites had to be closed, we saw a noticeable rise in fly tipping, although mainly in some localised ‘hot spot’ areas.

“Almost all of this seems to have been down to household waste being dumped in back alleys or on the road or pavement, so we will work with the communities where the hotspots are to enlist their support in tackling the minority of individuals who blight their neighbourhoods, to ensure they are clear this is totally unacceptable and won’t be tolerated.”

As well as supporting people to dispose of their waste responsibly and reminding them of the ways they can do this, the council will be increasing its enforcement activity in these areas taking a zero tolerance approach to any waste left lying in back lanes and alleys, and will work with communities to identify offenders.“Dumping rubbish is a disgraceful act and we will be tough on those people who think it is okay to do this,” added Coun Sanderson. “We have brought in more staff and when we catch offenders they can expect tough punishment."People found fly-tipping can face an on-the-spot fine of £400 or up to £50,000 or 12 months imprisonment if convicted in a magistrates' court.

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