Tips to open every day to tackle fly-tipping menace
Tips could soon be open all week in Walsall due a rise in fly-tipping across the borough.
Walsall Council is looking at working with a private firm to offer services seven days a week at Aldridge and Bloxwich.
It comes after hours were scaled back at the sites due to budget cuts, with Aldridge closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Bloxwich Thursdays and Fridays. Shorter opening hours from 9am to 5pm rather than 8am to 7pm were also introduced earlier this year under the cost-cutting measures.
The news comes as it emerged fly-tipping cost the council almost £240,000 in 12 months - a rise of £30,000 from the previous year.
Council leader Mike Bird said not having the tips open had impacted on fly-tipping.
"There is no doubt it has," he said. "One of the reasons I believe is because we are closing tips two days a week,
"We are looking to re-tender at the end of the year and within that tender discussion will be the option to look at opening seven days."
When the changes to opening days and times were introduced in the spring, there were regular queues building outside the site in Bloxwich. Some people were said have been waiting up to 30 minutes to deposit their rubbish.
Latest figures show there were more than 3,300 reports of fly-tipping during 2014/15. The cost to the council of dealing with such sites was £239,396, compared to £206,311 in 2013/14.
Notorious hotspots include Goscote Lodge Crescent and Slacky Lane.
The council has led successful prosecutions to tackle the problem. A man was last year taken to court and hit with a bill of more than £800 after bed mattresses, cushions and electrical goods were dumped.
They were scattered around Rayboulds Bridge Road, Walsall, and the culprit was captured by cameras which had been put there by council environmental health officers.