Tameside Council day of action brings light to flytipping problem

Members of Tameside Council took to Ashtons' streets on the 28th to combat flytipping hotspots.

Fly tipping is a problem that is widespread across the UK. Statistics from GOV.UK tell us that for the 2022/23 year, local authorities in England dealt with 1.08 million fly-tipping incidents, a decrease of 1% from the 1.09 million reported in 2021/22. Despite the 1% decrease, this still means that around 2960 cases of fly tipping are dealt with every day across the nation. 

To combat this on a local level Tameside council hold days of action throughout the year, and on the 28th local councillors alongside the council backed Fly Tipping Enforcement Unit took to the streets of Ashton St Peters Ward in a day of action to clean up some of the hotspot areas and to try and find addresses to issue out fines and penalties.

We met with the team to follow them on their day of action across the area, and focused on four main points whilst with the team. We stayed within the St Peters ward travelling to different hotspot areas – of these areas, the location just off of Stockport Road was the worst, with the alleyway behind the businesses being strewn with household items, food items, and home furnishings to name but a few.

Mike Robinson, the Regulatory Service Manager for Tameside Council, joined us to tell us more about the action the council have been taking, telling us “The “our streets” initiative started in 2022, starting initially in town centres and then moving further outwards to other hotspot areas. These initiatives highlight the work we do day in and day out, carrying out law enformement for fly tipping offences.”

We joined Mike and the rest of the team at a site known by the council for being a hotspot for fly tipping. Bentink Street in the St Peters Ward in Ashton is one of the hotspot areas for fly tipping, and Mike told us that they had been here for a day of action the year before, and were here again today for the day of action.

“We are going to be in this area,” Mike said, “before moving on towards the West End of Ashton around Marlborough Street still in St Peters Ward.”

The site had many incidents of fly tipping, and this begged the question as to what action is taken after the waste is removed. Mike was on hand to tell us more here, saying: “We respond to fly tipping reports every day through a team of enforcement officers to deal with this and look to identify where the waste has come from, looking for evidence within the waste and at CCTV. We then remove the waste and look to bring in offenders to prosecute them.”

The days of action have already proven successful since launch, and the enforcement officers regularly catch out offenders and issue them with penalty notices. Mike told us more about last years results, saying: “There has been an increased approach to fly tipping in Tameside, last year we issued 171 fixed penalty notices and prosecuted five people. So far this year we have issued 80 fixed penalty notices and prosecuted 4 people already. There has been a large backlog of prosecutions due to COVID so we can expect to see a lot more prosecutions going forward.”

The statistics Mike gave us showed that an impressive amount of work has been done and is still going on, and to put any doubts to rest about the action Mike said: “having monitored the stats regularly and having looked over the reports from the last 12 months, the number of reports of fly tipping has reduced and the number of fly tipping actions has increased.”

Also joining the day of action across the ward was Cllr Joyce Bowerman, the councillor for the St Peters Ward Ashton where the action was taking place. We spoke with her to get her viewpoint on the action whilst stood at a fly tipping hotspot, and she said: “This particular site we have been back and forth to for many months. The rubbish here could be recycled but it isn’t. It’s a discrace for the people that live around here and unfortunately this is what we have to put up with in St.Peters ward. The officers are out here continually going to the same hotspots trying to prosecute people through checking the bags, getting an address and prosecuting. I am happy to say the prosecution rate is going up so this will deter people from fly tipping.”

If you are aware of fly tipping in your area, report this to Tameside council at www.tameside.gov.uk/flytipping or call  0161 342 8355 to report.