Under the dedicated Shop a Tipper campaign, the council has significantly reduced incidents of dumped waste and issued 23 Fixed Penalty Notices(FPNs) in last 12 months.
FPNs are set at £400 and this money will be re-invested in the council’s environmental service to support the council’s efforts to identify and prosecute fly tippers.
Since January this year, compared to the same period last year, the campaign has resulted in a 53% decrease in the number of fly tips removed in the targeted streets.
The first road that had targeted interventions saw a 50% reduction in fly tips reported and removed compared to the same time last year. Fly tipping as a whole has decreased by 17% across the city during the same period.
Under Shop a Tipper, every city street is monitored. Problem areas are identified, and a series of interventions are carried out whenever fly tipping becomes persistent.
Over the past 12 months, 21 hotspot streets have been targeted and residents were initially sent warning letters with information about how they could legally dispose of their rubbish in the city.
Where fly tipping persisted, further letters were sent warning that CCTV cameras would be installed and monitored. Images were taken from the footage and placed on posters in the affected streets to ask local residents for information about the culprits.
If the information provided leads to successful identification, and FPNs are issued and paid or a prosecution takes place, residents receive a £100 Enjoy Wolverhampton Gift Card.
Officers have also been able to monitor CCTV for evidence of fly tipping with vehicles, to identify where the vehicles could also be seized as part of the offence.
Councillor Craig Collingswood, City of Wolverhampton Council’s cabinet member for environment and climate change, said: “Fly tipping is a disgusting and thoughtless crime and one that we are working very hard to tackle in Wolverhampton.
“As the responsible cabinet member, I want to assure residents that we are taking this offence very seriously with our targeted campaigns and the significant reduction in dumped waste we have seen so far in our hotspot streets is extremely encouraging.
“But we will not stop here. We want to build on this successful work and make a difference for our residents. 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.
“Fly tipping is a national problem and we are by no means different to the rest of the country. But we are taking strong action on a crime that costs Wolverhampton taxpayers more than £260,000 per year to clean up.
“I would encourage residents to report any incidents of fly tipping they see and if they recognise offenders on posters to take action immediately and Shop a Tipper.”
If residents recognise anyone on our Shop a Tipper posters, or have information identifying someone who has fly tipped, please call 01902 552700. Please report fly tipping via the Love Clean Street app or via our Customer Services.
All residents are reminded they can walk into Household Waste and Recycling Centres (tips) and dispose of their rubbish free of charge. HWRCs are open 7 days a week from 8am to 4pm. Centres are at Anchor Lane, Lanesfield, Bilston and Shaw Road, Wolverhampton.
A bulky item collection service to dispose of big unwanted items is also available, find out more at Bulky item collection.
