NEW FLY-TIPPING FIGURES LEAVES WANDSWORTH “RED WITH EMBARRASSMENT”: LIB DEMS

Local Liberal Democrats have commented on figures released this week showing there were over 158,000 incidents of fly-tipping in Wandsworth costing the borough almost £4 million to clear up.

Responding to the new figures, Putney Liberal Democrat campaigner William Summers said:

“We are spending almost four million pounds each year on cleaning up dumped rubbish whilst at the same time many local services are seeing their budgets cut. Wandsworth is left red with embarrassment at these figures.”

“It is completely unacceptable to dump rubbish illegally and expect somebody else to clean it up. However it doesn’t help when the council charges an exorbitant amount to pick up DIY rubbish and garden waste from homes. I have little doubt these high fees are counter-productive and encourage even more people to fly-tip.”

“There has to be a carrot and stick approach to fly-tipping. The carrot is making it easy for people to legally dispose of their rubbish, and the stick is using the full weight of the law to prosecute fly-tippers.”

Wandsworth was shown to have the highest level of fly-tipping in London, with 158,076 incidents in 2006/07. The cost of clearing up this up was £3,767,964. There were 18 prosecutions for fly-tipping in this same period.

NOTES

1. Fly-tipping figures for all English councils were released earlier this week and are available on the Defra website: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/.../2006-07-la-breakdown.pdf

2. Wandsworth Borough Council charges a minimum of £16.50 for the removal of garden waste - by far in excess of any other London authority. The minimum charge for the collections of home improvement / DIY rubbish is £51.50. Wandsworth Borough Council bulky goods and garden waste prices can be found on the council’s website: http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/Home/.../Refuse/bulkywaste.htm