Fly-tipping rightly boils people’s blood.
Those who do it deserve to pay the price for selfishly spoiling our local area, but it can often be tricky to catch them.
That's why the Government set up the Fly-Tipping Intervention Grant, and this week we got the brilliant news that Swale Borough Council are one of 26 councils selected in the latest round of funding.
The Council will receive a total of £32,900 to introduce CCTV and improve partnerships with the police - to help them target illegal waste carriers and fly-tippers in rural and urban hotspots.
Some areas have seen dramatic changes in fly-tipping activity after being included in earlier rounds of the scheme. For example, in the three months following their interventions, Durham County Council has seen a reduction in fly-tipping of over 60% in the areas where CCTV was installed onto existing lighting columns; Pendle Borough Council have seen a reduction in fly-tipping reports of over 43% in areas where free pop-up recycling banks, skips and advice were provided at local ‘waste amnesty’ events; and Hyndburn Borough Council have seen a 100% reduction in fly-tipping at hotspots where fencing was installed.
I have long called for more action locally, and in recent years worked with both local councils and police to respond to residents’ concerns.
With the help of local police, these new cameras will give us a great opportunity to catch more people in the act. When we do, new laws have increased the fines they’ll be getting, and made sure that all the money raised gets put back in to catching more fly-tippers.
This scheme has had a massive impact in other places in the country, and I can’t wait to see what it does for us here in Swale.
