Prosecutions are urgently needed

Residents living in Orton Goldhay and Orton Brimbles are thoroughly fed up with the rubbish that is regularly dumped on their streets, in woodland and in alleyways behind their houses.

Lately, residents have been brilliant at contacting me to let me know about fly-tip in their area and in each case I’ve reported it to the council who have been quick to remove it.

We know that removing it right away is important as flytip attracts further fly-tip and an area will quickly become a fly-tip ‘hotspot’ if rubbish isn’t removed immediately.

However, residents are concerned that the people doing the fly-tipping are wise to this and are continuing to dump stuff in the knowledge that the council will come and take it away. Residents feel that the fly-tipping on local streets will only stop when the people doing it are prosecuted.

To get the message out into the community that flytippers will be prosecuted, I’ve created stickers that I am putting on the larger items that are fly-tipped.

The stickers serve as a reminder that fly-tipping is illegal and that those caught will be prosecuted. They will hopefully also be a bit of a shock to the people doing the fly-tipping who may not be aware that I get tip-offs about fly-tip and know where it’s happening, even if it is down an alleyway or outside someone’s back gate.

The stickers also display information about the date and location of Orton Waterville Parish Council’s next free bulky waste collection, so those fly-tipping in their own communities will know how to get rid of things locally for free in a responsible way.

I have identified four streets in Orton Brimbles and a further 13 streets in Orton Goldhay where fly-tipping is a problem. I will be visiting all of these over the next few weeks with the stickers. However, crucial to the success of this initiative is community involvement. I have given sheets of stickers to a number of residents who will keep an eye out for new fly-tip in the streets where they live.

They will put a sticker on the fly-tip they see and will report it to me immediately. In many cases they will also have