Council chiefs fire response to fly-tip grant claims by MP
COUNCIL waste chiefs have refuted criticism from a Valley MP after they did not submit a bid for government support to tackle fly-tipping.
In a post on her Facebook
page, Haslingden MP Sara Britcliffe hailed the announcement of plans to save money for households disposing of DIY waste, alongside the new grant funding for local authorities.
But she added: “This is great news but I am so disappointed to find out that both Hyndburn and Rossendale
failed to even bid for extra funding from the Government to help with interventions to tackle flytipping.
“The councils who actually put in a bid and those successful can spend this funding on things like CCTV etc to get tough on those who blight our community, with some receiving up to £50,000 for these interventions!
“A missed opportunity by Hyndburn and Rossendale Labour-run councils on something that matters a lot to residents across Hyndburn and Haslingden. We will continue to put pressure on them to act.”
However, a Rossendale council spokeswoman responded: “This scheme was administered through WRAP on behalf of DEFRA. Rossendale Council was not directly informed about this national government scheme by DEFRA or by any other channel.
“Information released about the scheme which we have subsequently seen suggests it was targeted at specific councils known to DEFRA who have high rates of fly tipping.
“Nationally only 11 authorities received the funding and only one of those, Warrington, was in the North West.
“In Rossendale we are already using CCTV and ANPR technology to assist us with enforcement and in the past 12 months we successfully launched Operation Trident to tackle fly-tipping.
“This has seen investment in a dedicated enforcement team resulting in 45 fixed penalty fines being issued
amounting to around £18,000 with a further 20 prosecutions pending, as well as additional resource to remove fly-tipping as quickly as possible.”
A Hyndburn council spokeswoman said: “The national government grant being referred to was part of a pilot project and our understanding is that only selected councils were invited to apply.
“Hyndburn Borough Council were not directly informed of the funding bid and therefore not eligible to apply for the grant.
“We are committed to tackling fly-tipping and welcome all opportunity to increase resource and funding to combat this.
“We are also grateful to our community who are working alongside us to tackle the issue and to local litter picking groups for the work they do.
“Fly-tipping can be reported via our website or by calling 01254 388 111.”