The cost of fly-tipping
‘IT’S A BLIGHT ON OUR CITY’
FLY-TIPPERS dumping rubbish in Hull cost taxpayers more than half a million pounds last year – enough to put an extra 17 police officers on our streets.
Exclusive figures obtained through Freedom of Information show the number of fly-tipping incidents more than doubled in the 12 months up to March 2022, with officers recording 19,105 incidents – up from 9,490 in the previous financial year.
While the spike was mainly down to the council sending more waste disposal officers onto the streets, they said the crime remained “a blight on our city”.
Some 955 tonnes of waste was removed in 2021-22, approximately the weight of
150 elephants. The overall cost of getting rid of other people’s illegally dumped rubbish in this time was £528,000, the figures show.
Since April 2017, a total of £1.95m has had to be spent clearing up household waste, furniture, appliances and other various types of rubbish dumped on streets, car parks and roadsides.
Hull City Council said that, since 2019, it has been sending out waste disposal officers to actively monitor so-called “problem areas”, which may be the reason behind the stark rise in reports.
The figures do not take into account the number of incidents reported twice, such as multiple residents reporting the same rubbish, or reporting something which may have already been found and disposed of by officers.
“The main thing is that fly-tipping is a blight on our shared space,” said Doug Sharp, the council’s Head of Street Cleaning. “We all share this city. Dumping rubbish on your neighbours’ doorsteps is just grossly offensive and antisocial behaviour.”
“We’ve got 12 staff divided into six crews of two who will patrol an area and remove anything they find. They’ll also check for evidence as well – such as addressed letters.”
CCTV of various offenders caught in the act was released in March, with footage showing one brazen woman wheeling bags of waste in a pram before dumping it on Wheeler Street.
“Most people are law-abiding citizens,” Doug said. “It’s far more likely that those people prepared to act in this way are the hardest proportion of people in society to influence and change their behaviour, sadly.”
Residents still report fly-tipping through the council’s website.