The new leader of Oldham Council has been seeing first-hand how fly-tipping is tackled and action is taken against environmental criminals.
Councillor Arooj Shah and Councillor Chris Goodwin, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, joined staff from the local authority's Don’t Trash Oldham Neighbourhood Enforcement team on patrol in St Mary’s.
During their visit, they saw the team investigate bags of waste dumped near Cranberry Street.
Evidence was retrieved and enforcement officers will issue a fine (Fixed Penalty Notice) to the person responsible. The waste was then placed in red enforcement bags and removed from the street by council staff.
Councillor Shah said: “It was good to get out and see for myself what our staff are up against. “I’m proud to say I come from St Mary’s and the vast majority of people I talk to are proud of their neighbourhoods too.
“But I’m really disappointed that a small number of people think it’s ok to just dump their rubbish here and leave our teams to clear it up. Sadly, it’s the same across the borough, not just in St Mary’s. It’s not on.
“When I started Don’t Trash Oldham our priorities were clear – we wanted to make the borough cleaner and greener and take action against those who leave others to clear up after them.
“In the last two years we’ve fined more than 560 people and prosecuted more in court. We’re naming and shaming people because residents don’t want to live in a tip.
“If you see someone dumping an old sofa or bin bags of rubbish report it to us. We’ll investigate and will take action if we find evidence.”
The council say it is treating St Mary’s, along with Alexandra, Medlock Vale, Waterhead, and Werneth as hotspot areas because they have the highest number of reported fly-tipping incidents, and the authority has teamed up engagement marshals with enforcement officers so they can build up relationships with residents.
Staff are also knocking on doors and talking to people to make sure they have the right bins, know what waste goes in each one, discussing other issues around waste and recycling, plus the illegal dumping of waste.
For more information on Don’t Trash Oldham – including how to report environmental crimes – visit www.oldham.gov.uk/donttrasholdham
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