Express & Star

New fines to help Dudley Council crack down on fly-tippers

New charges will see fly-tippers across the Dudley borough forced to pay on on-the-spot fines.

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Chiefs at Dudley Council agreed to the crackdown after seeing a rise in litter and rubbish being dumped in the area.

Fines of up to £200 could be dished out to 'small scale' fly-tippers after the decision was backed on Friday.

Hilary Bills, the council's cabinet member for environmental services, said she hoped the new fines would help the authority tackle fly-tippers and act as a deterrent.

She said the council also hoped the move would speed up processes for punishing those who dropped litter and blighted the borough's landscape.

"This means that instead of having to take people to court we can now issue the fines straight away," she said. "I think it's good news and it's helpful that we can get it done straight away. Whatever gets thrown on the pavement – whether it's dog doo or a fridge – it causes a cost to the council.

"That's a cost the council cannot really afford in these difficult financial times. It's not the council's fault people fly-tip, it's just poor behaviour."

A report by the council, which backed the decision, said the new legal power would support the council and tackle the problem of small scale fly-tipping without the drawn out process of taking an individual to court.

It said: "This will be a more rapid and cost effective way of dealing with this type of offence. It will also work as a deterrent."

The fly-tipping fines closely follow another scheme, which chiefs also hope will clean up the borough.

The authority has launched an innovative stencilling scheme to spray warning messages about the consequences of allowing dogs to foul in public areas.

This leaves a spray-painted warning on the pavement in key areas, which is not permanent and washes off over time. The scheme will target parks and open spaces in a bid to encourage people to clean up after their pets.

Dog owners can face fines of up to £1,000 and prosecution through the courts.

Wall Heath and Kingswinford parks have been piloted first with more sites due to be added to the programme to target any hot spots.

A similar scheme has already been introduced across the neighbouring borough of Sandwell.

Earlier this year, the Express & Star revealed cash-strapped Dudley Council had been forced to fork out £10,000 on cleaning its worst fly-tipping hot spots.

The worst hit streets in the borough were revealed as Hall Street in Dudley, Oak Lane in Kingswinford, Mears Coppice in Quarry Bank and Foxcote Lane in Cradley.

The authority spent a total of £10,631 cleaning up the problem roads last year and received 809 complaints about fly-tipping for the whole of the borough.

South Staffordshire MP Gavin Williamson has also joined the campaign for cleaner streets and hailed 'stricter and costlier' penalties being introduced to tackle fly-tippers, as well as cutting out the judicial process, when they were introduced last month.

The fines, which range between £150 and £400, allow local authorities to quickly deal with fly-tippers on a small scale.

Mr Williamson backed the scheme but said procedures still needed to be toughened up following an increase of fly-tipping incidents on public and private land across the Black Country.

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