The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Hidden cameras are among the measures being proposed to catch fly-tippers in South Holland.
The district council is looking to erect them at local flytipping hot-spots as the number of incidents increase.
In December alone the cost of cleaning up fly tips doubled to £6,000.
A rise has been reported across Lincolnshire and beyond.
In November the number of fly-tips reported to South Holland District Council increased by 178 per cent, a report to the authority’s Performance Monitoring Panel stated.
SHDC communities manager Emily Holmes told the meeting the authority is in conversations with a company about providing the hidden cameras which work at night, though the current lockdown had stalled the process.
“Cameras are not a simple fix,” she said. “It’s something we’d all like to see but in those rural locations there may not be something to attach those cameras to, and no power source and how do you secure the data on that so the images can’t be taken and used in an inappropriate way?
“It has been a real challenge and there’s been a lot of work done on looking at other local authorities and how they’re working.”
A SCRAP fly-tipping scheme, which South Holland is part of, was launched last month to highlight that members of the public should check the credentials of businesses before giving them their waste.
Ms Holmes told the meeting that the council was currently in the process of 11 prosecutions for fly-tipping while continuing to ask the public that they check the credentials of companies offering to get rid of waste.
“There is evidence that the message has got out there and that people are checking for waste carrier licences,” she said. “Unfortunately we still have a significantly increasing problem around that.”
Coun Jim Astill said: “A lot of people blame fly-tipping locally on the tips not being open but actually a lot of flytipping I see is connect to unscrupulous waste carriers dumping it anywhere other than the public not taking it to the tip.
“It’s really important to take forward the remote cameras.
“There’s a number of areas in our ward where cameras will be of benefit.
“I know a couple of conveniently placed cameras in Crowland would catch a number of flytippers in the area or catch people potentially leaving the premises to dump it elsewhere in the area.”
Coun Bryan Alcock though expressed “frustration”: “It disappoints me we’re still trying to find out where the hot spots are. Some of them must be well known already.
“The camera situation is one thing and it’s good that we’re looking at them.”
On the SCRAP scheme he continued: “It frustrates me we come back with even more talking shops, even more people to consult with.
“Somehow or other we need to get a grip of this and really deal with it.”
The Voice asked South Holland District Council for a comment but had not received a response at the time of going to press.
