A council has pledged to tackle a thousand illegal waste dumping sites in 100 days after announcing an extra £260,000 funding to boost its environmental cleaning response.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council has not only vowed to clean up the fly-tipping grot spots but says it will publicly name and shame culprits as part of a zero-tolerance response to the crime.
The investment, approved by the authority’s cabinet today, Tuesday 20 June, will include the recruitment of four new members of cleansing staff, five new deployable CCTV cameras, a road/pavement sweeper vehicle and driver, an additional two 3.5-tonne tippers and three new enforcement officers.
The environmental cleaning response team, which will complement the work of the existing staff, will also operate during the evenings and weekends.
They will be responsible for identifying the source of the waste, ensuring waste is lawfully disposed of, investigating and enforcing the city council’s zero-tolerance approach to waste offences and scouring CCTV.
They will also liaise with local residents and businesses to identify where the waste has come from.
Councillor Amjid Wazir, cabinet member for environment and enforcement, said: “It’s no secret that Stoke-on-Trent is being plagued by illegally dumped waste and we believe that this new phase of investment will help to tackle that.
“We want to reduce the time it takes to remove waste from land and alleyways across the city and to do that we need resources.
“We are taking a zero-tolerance approach to fly-tipping and we will not hesitate to name and shame those responsible. Now is the time for residents to take ownership of where they live and take pride in the city.”
“This is a small amount of targeted investment that will have a big impact in improving our communities, encouraging residents to take pride in where they live, and taking swift action to tackle culprits.”
The extra investment is in addition to funding from the UK Government via the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
The council’s new administration which took control in May has made clamping down on illegal dumping an immediate priority. The authority issued 109 fixed penalty notices for fly-tipping during last month.
