Fly-tipping and litter cost us £3m
Call for greater enforcement as shocking expenditure on street cleaning revealed
AVOLUNTARY group have called on the council to make sure that people responsible for littering are given fines - after new figures revealed the huge cost of street cleaning in Rochdale.
The latest government figures revealed the council was forced to shell out £2,938,000 on street cleaning in 2018/19, the fourth highest in Greater Manchester.
However, when population is taken into account, Rochdale moves up to the second worst in the region - costing £13.35 per head and above the national average of £12.34.
The council said the figures show their commitment to maintaining a clean borough, and appealed to residents to consider the cost their littering is having on council resources.
It comes just a few months after the Observer reported on the over 4,000 annual incidents of fly-tipping in the borough, making it a ‘red hot topic’ for Rochdale Environmental
Action Group (REAG).
Christine Mathewson, chair of the group since she established it in 2012, said she was not surprised by these figures, and was very upset at the lack of enforcement from the council.
The 58-year-old said: “We have been working for seven years to improve our town and change minds and hearts about littering and fly-tipping.
“We have done this from numerous angles including: working with residents to clean their own streets and alleyways, educating, informing people of their responsibility, tidying open areas and reminding people of the penalties for the crime of littering and flytipping.”
Christine, who lives in the Milkstone and Deeplish
ward, said they met with Environmental Management and councillors just two weeks ago to discuss how to tackle the “entrenched problems” they see.
“We outlined our sadness and frustrations that in the seven years we had been volunteering nothing has changed,” she said.
“We tell people that they risk a fine if they drop litter but of course they know this is not true. We feel that in the majority of cases our council views enforcement as too difficult and it is much easier to just clean the mess up.
“The chances of someone being fined for dropping litter in Rochdale, in my opinion, is near zero because there is simply no presence on the street to do so.” Christine said three litter wardens were appointed last year and despite promises to concentrate on the town centre this never came about.
The new statistics also showed that Rochdale was one of six areas in GM to spend more money on cleaning up litter and fly tipping than they do on bin collection - spending more than double the £1,325,000 spent on bins.
Christine said the group are constantly met with apathy from the general public and they believe this won’t change until ‘pockets are hit’ and fines are increased.
She added: “In the seven years of volunteering we have seen more and more resources put in to cleaning up after people. I am well aware that the streets need to be clean but when you have attitudes like those outlined above this only reinforces people’s belief that it is their right to have their mess cleaned up for them.”
REAG are now calling for an awareness campaign so people are made aware of their responsibilities - and an enforcement system as strict as parking fines. Councillor Neil Emmott, cabinet member for environment, said they regularly do anti-littering and fly-tipping campaigns and that they were very appreciative of the help and support from groups like REAG.
He added: “These figures show our commitment to maintaining a clean and green borough for our residents but they also show just how costly it is for us to clean up after people who think it’s ok to litter and fly tip. In difficult financial times of course we like to redirect that amount of spend into other services for residents, but we need people to help us with this and think about the cost of their littering and not disposing of their waste correctly.
“We do find it frustrating that littering and dumping waste is not only costly and unsightly but it can also be hard to gather evidence of for prosecution. But, we are committed to prosecutions and it’s pleasing that we’ve had several successful ones recently, as well as 12 fines in the last quarter, and this should serve as a warning to others.”