Oldham’s Liberal Democrat Leader and Shaw representative, councillor Howard Sykes MBE has urged Oldham Council to think outside the box when it comes to tackling fly-tipping. In a letter to council bosses, Sykes has called for the council to apply for grant funding from the government; and highlighted three strategies that have shown good results elsewhere in the country.
Councillor Sykes said: “Fly-tipping is a crime which harms our natural world, blights communities and costs council taxpayers thousands to clean up and councils time and staff resources. If there is extra funding available from the government Oldham must be sure to apply for that funding. The councils that deal with Fly-tipping best are the ones who have multiple schemes in place to prevent and prosecute offenders.”
The Liberal Democrat Leader’s letter highlights increased use of CCTV, compulsory education courses for repeat offenders and even artificial intelligence as measures that Oldham could adopt.
Councillor Sykes said: “Councils across the country dealt with 1.13 million fly-tipping incidents in 2020/21, up by 16% from 2019/20. The Liberal Democrat group put forward proposals aimed at tackling fly-tipping in our budget amendment earlier this year, but the Labour chose to vote them down.
“Fly-tipping is an act of environmental crime and it blights our environment. Tackling things like this in a robust way should be entry level stuff for any administration. We need to see Oldham council getting the basics right not taking a soft approach as they have been doing.”