FLY-TIPPING
Finding and fining the fly-tippers
This is part of a dedicated taskforce out on the streets of the borough clearing up fly-tipping reported to the council ... and also investigating where it has come from . Hundreds of people are facing fines .
The trucks ’ crews include environmental crime officers who look to find evidence so they can track where the flytipped rubbish originated from . If it is found to have come from a business or a resident , they could be fined .
In the first three months after these crews got to work in the summer , they visited 763 streets in the borough to investigate fly-tipping and gather evidence . The dumped waste they found was traced back to 1,124 addresses and the council is in the process of issuing fixed penalty notices ( which are effectively ‘ fines ’) to those people .
Councillor Bassam Mahfouz , cabinet member for environment , transport and leisure , said : “ The vast majority of residents dispose of their waste appropriately and legally . Like me , they are disgusted when they see a disrespectful minority fly-tip on our streets .”
The government recently introduced £ 400 fixed penalty notices . Ealing Council was one of the first London boroughs to adopt a policy of issuing this fine to fly-tippers and to those who gave the flytippers the rubbish in the first place .
Serious cases can lead to much higher fines – or even prison . It carries a maximum penalty of an
12 around ealing Winter 2016 / 17