Fly-Tippers Cost Us Over £1m
H&F sees huge rise in incidents of illegal dumping
Hammersmith and Fulham saw a “significant increase” in incidents of fly-tipping last year, which cost the borough more than £1m to clear up, according to Government reports.
A report published by the Environment Agency shows that there were more than 9,000 incidents of fly-tipping in the borough in 2007/8.
“The number of fly-tipping incidents in Hammersmith and Fulham decreased between 2005/06 and 2006/07– from 5941 to 5275 in 2006/07. However, there was a significant increase in the number recorded in 2007/08 – to 9334 incidents. The most common size of fly tipping incident in Hammersmith and Fulham is small van load, which has seen a big increase in 2007/08. The occurrence of large incidents has increased significantly, and the number of significant/multi load incidents is higher than the number of single item incidents,” the report states.
Figures published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) show the borough spent £1,279,814 clearing up this illegally dumped waste in 2007-8. This is the fifth highest amount spent by any London borough on fly-tipping, after Lewisham (£1,592,780), Newham (£2,156,905) Kensington & Chelsea (£2,694,443) and Wandsworth (£5,821,969).
The Council were unable to tell us where the worst areas in W12 for fly-tipping are. However, one anonymous writer to FixMyStreet.com complains about rubbish being dumped near Goldhawk Road: “There is often loose refuse and black bags left by the gated area to the live-work units at the north end of Richford Street. This often gets scattered across the pavement and attracts vermin,” the resident writes.
The Council say that dumping anything from an unwanted mattress to a lorry load of rubble is illegal and can result in a penalty of up to £50,000 or imprisonment for up to five years. They say fly-tipping on the borough's streets is a problem they are trying to tackle: "The Council is actively working to find a solution to the problem of fly-tipping and uses enforcement officers to track down, and if needs be, prosecute the worst offenders,” a spokesman said.
“We also issue warning letters informing residents of the law relating to fly-tipping. We will continue to work hard to cut down on the number of fly-tippers and ensure that Hammersmith & Fulham is a cleaner greener borough for all."
However, Labour opposition leader Stephen Cowan says he believes the increase in dumped rubbish is a result of budget cuts: “The Conservative Administration has cut the street cleaning and refuse collection budget by £1m, introduced a brand new stealth tax for removing residents' unwanted bulky household items, they've cut the number of street wardens who were meant to tackle fly-tipping and they've cancelled the garden waste removal service.
“This is both short-sighted and incompetent as not only are our streets now filthy but they've actually incurred an unforeseen £1.3m cost as they didn't envisage having to remove all the extra illegal fly-tipping," he said.
Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokeswoman for Hammersmith, Merlene Emerson says issues such as fly-tipping came up as a concern at the recent Crime Summit organised by the Council. “To me many of these issues should not be seen merely as problems in law and order, but part of a larger problem with regard to provision of public services. E.g. fly-tipping: when I asked the panel speaker where the nearest dump was, he said 'Wandsworth'. No wonder residents find it more convenient to leave their unwanted goods down some alley in the borough instead,” she said.
“I would suggest a couple of solutions: First, for the Council to publicise more widely (one does not find this information on the website) that there is a free collection service for bulky domestic items, e.g. furniture, mattresses and white goods. Secondly, the Council needs to work harder at identifying the culprits of fly-tipping. This may mean speaking to and working with local residents and having enough officers to man the phone line for the Greener and Safer/environment department for people to ring in to share the information.”
The Council currently collects three bulky items per household per month for free. We asked the Council to confirm whether this service would be continuing or whether charges were due to be brought in. We received no reply from them.
Yasmine Estaphanos
5 March 2009
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