Authorities pledge to get tough on fly-tippers across Black Country
Several fly-tippers have been prosecuted in the past year for dumping rubbish in the Black Country as council bosses have vowed to crack down on the issue.
In Walsall, 71 fixed penalty notices were given out in the year to March 2022 – the highest in any area of the Black Country, according to figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
There were 58 fixed penalty notices issued in Dudley, 37 in Sandwell and 33 in Wolverhampton.
Sandwell Council’s cabinet member for environment, Councillor Zahoor Ahmed said: "Sandwell Council is committed to tackle fly-tipping and take the necessary action against those who fly-tip items in the borough.
"We are asking people to think before they fly-tip and to take care before paying someone else to dispose of their waste.
"We have a very proactive approach to identifying waste and fly-tipping incidents in Sandwell. We clear fly-tipping incidents as soon as possible and check for evidence that helps us find the culprits and take the necessary action against them."
He said the council had improved the ways that people can report fly-tipping and had introduced a mobile reporting app.
"We are increasing our use of real-time intelligence to identify hotspots and emerging areas of the borough that are experiencing fly-tipping," he added.
"This intelligence will help to identify where the council can deploy its dedicated fly-tipping cameras to gather evidence and increase our enforcement action against the culprits of fly-tipping."
Wolverhampton Council has placed CCTV cameras in key areas in the city and there has been a clear reduction in the crime in the two first hotspot streets identified for the action.
Before cameras were installed, the council’s environmental services team saw 160 items of rubbish dumped in streets in the St Peter’s area of the city during the period November 2021 to January 2022.
But following the launch of the crackdown, the most recent figures show there were 47 items dumped in the same streets from the period November 2022 to January 2023.
Offenders in the hotspot streets were identified through CCTV footage and three fixed penalty notices were issued and paid. Money will be re-invested in the council’s environmental service.
Cameras were installed last year in the hotspots and in December the council also began sharing images of fly-tipping offenders on lampposts to appeal for information to help identify the culprits.
Councillor Steve Evans, Wolverhampton Council’s cabinet member for city environment and climate change, said: “It’s fantastic to see that our efforts to tackle this disgusting and thoughtless crime are paying off. I'm aware we have some way to go, but we will not stop here and we will be using a combination of CCTV and posters in other areas of our city to continue identifying and penalising those who blight our communities."
In December, Andrew Evans, of Cobden Close, Darlaston, was ordered to pay almost £3,000 by Dudley Magistrates Court.
He was prosecuted after closed circuit cameras near a fly-tipping hotspot recorded the male driver of a red Ford Fiesta getting out of it before removing three full black bin bags and cardboard.
The bags were then left behind at the roadside, in Woodwards Road, Pleck, in Walsall, at about 11.52am on June 18, 2021.
Last year, annoyed residents spoke out about bags of rubbish being dumped in the streets and at bus stops in Blakenhall.
And workers also complained that Hatton Street in Bilston was seeing frequent dumping of everything from beds to rubble and fridges.
Meanwhile in December 2022, John Sheridan admitted six counts of fly tipping at locations across Bushbury during a hearing at Dudley Magistrates Court.
Sheridan, of Broome Road, dumped household waste, furniture and building materials and was given a community order for 12 months with a requirement to carry out 150 hours unpaid work.
Magistrates also imposed a £95 victim surcharge and awarded the council costs of £3,000.
Sheridan used a white van to dump the rubbish in a variety of locations, including outside the London Midland Railway Club in Bushbury Lane, in Cross Street North, Showell Road, Coxwell Avenue and twice in Shaw Road.
He was taking money from people to remove their waste during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic and first lockdown, with the items being dumped between April 9 and May 11, 2020.
Sheridan was caught through a combination of Wolverhampton Council CCTV, private security cameras and witnesses.
And early last year, one woman was fined £400 after paying someone £20 to take wood and other items away which ended up near the River Tame in Tame Road, Tipton.
She was traced through paperwork left at the scene and issued with a fixed penalty notice.
Another woman said she paid a friend £50 to take away rubbish, but it was found dumped in a car park in Beechcroft Road, Cradley Heath. She was also fined £400.
