CCTV cameras captures 'horrendous' fly-tipping over Bonfire Night period

Councillors were told that an effort to catch fly-tippers during the bonfire period led to cameras capturing a number of “horrendous” images of people throwing waste onto fires, leading to “toxic fumes.”

Officers are currently scouring through these images, and the fly-tippers could expect either a hefty fine or to be taken to court.

The Bradford South Area Committee was given an update on work done by Neighbourhood Wardens and Environmental Enforcement Officers in the constituency at a meeting on December 2.

Officers said fly-tipping was one of the most common complaints they received.

But efforts to tackle the blight had been helped by a £300,000 investment from Bradford Council to tackle fly-tipping. That money has been used to set up dozens of CCTV cameras in fly-tipping hotspots, and to secure sites that suffer repeated tipping.

Work is underway to identify people who have been caught in the act, and the council will soon be publishing images of tippers they cannot track down on their website.

Over the bonfire period, a number of people were captured on CCTV after cameras were placed in areas that attract fly tipping around Bonfire Night.

Environmental services co-ordinator Amjad Ishaq said: “We caught a number of incidents on camera, and we are currently investigating these incidents. There are a number of horrendous images we captured of businesses throwing hazardous materials onto bonfires and releasing toxic fumes.

“We’re actively pursuing the people behind this and hopefully we should have some positive outcomes from this.”

He said the new CCTV cameras were deployed in over 40 locations, including nine in Bradford South.

He added: “We want to set up a Caught on Camera initiative to identify people who commit fly-tipping. We want to be able to publish these images to get the public to help us identify them. The police do a similar thing."

He said the new scheme would begin in the New Year.

When asked about how many people have been caught out by the new cameras, he said: “We’ve got about 25 images of fly-tipping, and 15 ones where you can identify a vehicle registration. So that is 15 cases we’re actively pursuing.”

He said, in 2018, the council issued 24 fixed penalty notices for fly-tipping in a year. In the first six months of this year it had already handed out 40.

But he told members: “The problem is a lot of fly-tippers don’t come in a vehicle. In some areas of Great Horton, people just turn up in the middle of the night with a fridge or mattress, dump it and off they go.

“That might seem like it is just a small amount of fly-tipping, but over time it can build up to become a huge issue for an area.”