'Fly tipping is a plague across this borough' admits councillor, as Doncaster resident brands their response 'ineffectual'

Cabinet member, Councillor Joe Blackham responded to resident Chris Nowak, who asked councillors why the council was ‘allowing fly-tipping’ of household waste behind houses and alleys in the areas of Hyde Park, Balby and Hexthorpe.

Mr Nowak called the council’s response ‘ineffectual’ and urged the bosses to get tougher.

Coun Blackham said he found it ‘totally unacceptable’ that people had to endure fly-tipping but added ‘Doncaster Council do not fly-tip’ but it’s down to the ‘residents who live there’.

The Thorne and Moorends councillor said the local authority had invested in specific cameras deployed across the borough in order to catch more offenders.

He added the recent floods had diverted staff away from normal frontline duties.

The cabinet member said enforcement action was being taken with 3,200 fines handed out for fly-tipping people dropping litter and the council had ‘never allowed fly-tipping of any sort’.

Coun Blackham said: “Doncaster Council does not and has never allowed fly-tipping of any sort. Fly-tipping is a blight not only on the countryside of Doncaster but also on the urban streets.

“I find it totally unacceptable that people have to endure what they have to endure.

“However, it’s not Doncaster Council that does the fly-tipping - it’s the residents that live in the area where fly-tipping occurs hence the request that a councillor or resident who see fly-tipping occurring, to report it into the system.

“When we pick fly-tipping issues up, we check to see if there is any evidence trails that can be taken back to the people that actually cause the fly-tipping.

“I can also assure you that this does not just around Hexthorpe - I live in Thorne and Moorends and there is fly-tipping routinely taking place around the area and it doesn’t matter which councillor or which area in this authority they will all see the same thing.

“Fly-tipping is a plague across this borough and regrettably, we’ve seen significant slippage in ability to address those issues but we intend to enforce our efforts and the amount of resources available to address this.”