Sights set on fly tipping blight

A scene from the fly tipping summit held by Marc Jones, Police and Crime Commissioner, (front centre, left).

Last Friday, Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Marc Jones called a special summit to investigate what can be done to tackle the issue of fly tipping.

Representative from all seven of the county’s district and city authorities, the county council, Lincolnshire Police, the Environment Agency, several drainage boards, the NFU, and the County Land and Business Association all attended the event, held at police HQ in Nettleham.

Delegates were told that waste crime costs England £1 billion a year.

The meeting included an assessment from each council and drainage board about the current levels of fly tipping and how they are addressing the problem – giving rise to the grim examples at the start of this article.

It was also revealed there are 20 incidents of fly tipping a day in Lincolnshire.

Mr Jones plans to use the information given to draw up a list of actions, but has committed to creating a ‘hot spot’ map – showing the locations across the county most used by fly tippers – as a first step. Representatives from all agencies, including the Chief Constable, have also signed a pledge to seek way to work together to tackle fly tipping.

“Today is very much the first step in gathering information, good practice and experiences,” said Mr Jones. “But it is clear, already, that this is a huge problem for all our communities and it’s having a significant impact on resident’s quality of life.

“Clearly partnership working will be crucial so I am keen to analyse the information we have gathered today, find examples of positive steps taken around the UK and then see what projects we can create and launch that will begin to make a difference.”

Portfolio holder for communities at East Lindsey District Council Coun Sandra Harrison said it was ‘very supportive’ of the county-wide initiative.

She said: “This is one of the reasons we have just appointed a new environmental crime officer with another one soon to follow, who will be patrolling the district and responding to fly tips to investigate them as soon as we are aware of them in order to gather any available evidence that could help in identifying these offenders and dealing with them appropriately.

“Unfortunately East Lindsey District Council has regularly been a target of fly tippers in various areas of our large district.

“If you see a fly tip or witness one, report it to us on 01507 601111 or at www.e-lindsey.gov.uk/flytipping.”