Man dumped sofa in lane on Christmas Day
A fly-tipper was caught twice dumping rubbish in residential streets.
Edward Gill was seen by Sunderland City Council’s deputy leader dumping a sofa, and an alert council enforcement officer spotted him dumping trade waste.
Gill, who failed to turn up at Sunderland Magistrates’ Court for his trial, was warned he faces arrest if he doesn’t turn up to be sentenced later this month.
Coun Michael Mordey told the court he was visiting his mother for Christmas Day lunch when he saw Gill at the front of his property on the other side of the street manhandling a sofa.
“I knew the man to be Edward Gill,” said Coun Mordey.
“He wheeled the chair on a trolley into the back lane, where I later saw it dumped.”
The court heard a counempty cil environmental enforcement officer, Victoria Patterson, saw Gill and two other men clearing waste from the disused Ivy Leaf social club premises in Suffolk Street, Hendon.
“I was on my way to an unrelated appointment,” said Ms Patterson.
“I was aware there had been complaints about the run-down state of the Ivy Leaf, so I was interested to see clearance work being done.
“I saw Edward Gill dragging wheelie bins and bags up the rear lanes of Hendon Burn Avenue and Athol Road, where the items were left.”
Ms Patterson said she approached two men in a van at the Ivy Leaf site to ask about the rubbish, but she was told to mind her own business.
She returned the following day to find the wheelie bins, rubble sacks, and buckets had been spread around the surrounding back lanes, and some had been left in the gardens of houses.
Gill, 50, of Tower Street West, Hendon, denied two charges of illegally dumping waste on November 9, and December 25, both 2017.
He denied a charge of knowingly permitting an activity in contravention of an environmental permit, and he denied a charge of failing to produce waste transfer records.
Sentence was adjourned until March 20.
The Echo is continuing to runaCleanStreetscampaign, the Echo’s Clean Streets campaign, which is calling on Wearsiders to take more care of their personal rubbish and also report any incidentsoffly-tippingorrubbish dumping.
After the case, Coun Amy Wilson, Sunderland City Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, said: “I would encourage anyone with information to report fly-tipping immediately.”
You can report fly-tipping at Sunderland.gov.uk. or on 0191 520 5550.