'Disgusting' Doncaster residents face fly-tipping warning

The warning comes as reports show councils like Doncaster are seeing an 80 per cent hike in fly-tipping call-outs during the coronavirus lockdown.

The pandemic has meant the council has reduced some services, including picking up litter and dumped rubbish, to be able to respond to the needs of vulnerable communities who are most in need of help to ensure safe working practices for staff.

Tips across Doncaster have had to be temporarily closed and green bin collections have been suspended to enable the more crucial black and blue bins to continue to be emptied.

Residents are being urged to hold on to their excess household waste and consider not doing DIY or large clear outs and where possible, home composting.

The council has also urged people not to burn rubbish in their back gardens.

Residents should also be aware of rogue traders on social media who take money from people and claim they will dispose of their waste in a responsible manner. These traders then dump rubbish illegally by the roadside. If this happens, householders could receive a fixed penalty notice of £250 if the waste is traced back to them.

Cabinet member for the environment, Coun Chris McGuinness said people are using this as an ‘excuse’ to fly-tip, placing extra strain on services, ‘dirtying Doncaster’s streets’ and ‘damaging the countryside’.

“We totally understand that people may have more household waste than usual during the lockdown period, but this is not an excuse to dump it,” he said.

“We are seeing an increase in dumped rubbish, especially down back alleys, which is putting people’s health at risk and increasing the need for frontline workers to have to respond to incidents at a time when we all should be doing everything we can to protect each other. I urge people to do their civic duty during this time of crisis.

“My message for these disgusting fly-tippers - we investigate all reported incidents and we’ve recently invested in state of the art technology to catch people in the act. We will catch you.”