Community clean up successfully tackles fly-tipping hotspot

RESIDENTS and the council have worked together to successfully tackle fly-tipping in a problem spot in Ashton.

Tameside Council organised a community clean up of waste dumped between Kenworthy Avenue and Kings Road – an area that has seen ongoing issues with fly-tipping.

The day of action, which is part of the council’s wider Our Streets campaign, was arranged after a resident highlighted dumped waste in an alleyway close to their home.

Four residents joined the council enforcement team to help with the clean up. Evidence was found and investigated and three Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) will be served against the offenders.

This is in addition to a further eight Fixed Penalty Notices already served regarding waste offences in this location earlier this year. Six of these FPNs have been paid and two are proceeding to court prosecution following non-payment.

Tameside Council Executive Member Cllr Denise Ward, who is responsible for environmental services, said: “This is a great result. Unfortunately we regularly receive reports of fly-tipping in this area and recognise the problem may not have entirely gone away in the long term but excellent progress has been made and I’m really pleased to see residents working with us to tackle the issue.

“It is the responsibility of residents who have access to the alleyway/passageway to maintain them and keep them clear of refuse however we recognise that not all the residents are responsible for the fly-tipping and many of them take pride in their local area. I would like to thank those residents who rolled up their sleeves and helped us with the clean up and it’s also great that evidence was found against the perpetrators.

“There is no excuse for fly-tipping - it is totally unacceptable and disrespectful to the local community and environment. We have teams out every day investigating fly-tipping, as part of our ongoing Our Streets campaign, and we’ll always take action against offenders where we have the evidence to do so.”

To report fly-tipping in Tameside see www.tameside.gov.uk/flytipping. There more information on the Our Streets campaign here www.tameside.gov.uk/ourstreets