Express & Star

Fly-tipping of fridges soars in Walsall

Almost 400 fridges have been dumped in Walsall in just four months, it has emerged – as rogue traders target the metal.

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Hundreds of fridges were dumped in the borough in June, July, August and September.

The number has risen dramatically from the last financial year, when just five were dumped in Walsall.

Council chiefs spent £140,000 clearing up fly-tipping last year, with the figure now expected to rise.

In total there 383 fridges dumped during the four month spell.

Over the last few months there have been dozens of fridges left on the embankment near the M6, close to the walkway through Broadmeadows Road, New Invention.

In a report to the council, Mark Holden, head of clean and green services, said: "Fly-tipping in Walsall as with most authorities has been an ongoing and costly problem of anti-social behaviour.

"Through smarter working review in 2009 the service was redesigned resulting in response times for the removal of of fly-tips reducing from 14 to 16 days to 48 hours." He said the cost of dealing with flytipping in the last financial year had been calculated as £139,500.

Although there were none in April and May, there were seven fridges dumped in June, 66 in July, 176 in August and 134 in September.

Overall, there were 2,067 incidents of fly-tipping in Walsall during 2012/13. There were 151 incidents where small van loads of waste were dumped.

Regular hotspots have included Goscote Lodge Crescent in Goscote; and Shakespeare Crescent and Chaucer Road, in Bloxwich.

Some scrap collectors are believed to be collecting fridges from residential properties and then dropping them in beauty spots and streets after removing any metal parts they can sell on.

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