Report a fly-tipper to Hull City Council

PEOPLE living near fly-tipping hotspots are being encouraged to give more details about cases to the city council.

Officials admit the number of fly-tipping cases brought to court is dwarfed by the number they actually investigate.

Latest figures show the council prosecuted 111 people over a nine-month period last year.

However, during the same period the council received no fewer than 8,384 complaints about suspected illegally dumped rubbish.

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Now signs are being installed in known hotspot areas of the city aimed at encouraging the public to come forward with eyewitness accounts of fly-tipping.

Mark Cornall, the council's environmental crime unit manager, said identifying where dumped waste came from was often not sufficient to take a case to court.

"When a complaint comes in, we have to weave together a number of issues before deciding whether to prosecute," he said.

"Some complaints will be false, others fall down through lack of evidence.

"The mere fact that we can find identification evidence within the waste is not enough for a prosecution. Usually, we need much more than that.

"We rely heavily on evidence from people actually seeing something taking place."

Mr Cornall said the new signs would be installed in areas where most fly-tipping was known to occur.

"The signs will identify the area as a hotspot, warn people that fly-tipping is illegal and encourage people to report anything they see happening," he said.

"We know it can be difficult because many people are unwilling to go to court to give evidence but that is something we are working on."

Mr Cornall said officials were also planning to meet with magistrates to raise awareness of the scale of the problem of fly-tipping in Hull with the aim of increasing the levels of fines imposed on offenders.

Covering a period between last April and January this year, the figures show 82 fines were imposed in the 111 cases brought to court.

In addition, the council issued 89 fixed penalty notices and 38 formal cautions.

The authority also issued 2,315 warning letters which are usually the first course of action taken against anyone suspected of fly-tipping.

The two main hotspot areas in the city are in Riverside, which covers the city centre, and Wyke, which includes part of Beverley Road, Newland Avenue and Bricknell Avenue.

Doug Sharp, the council's waste development manager, said both areas witnessed a high turnover of residents, particularly near the University of Hull.

As a result, he said the authority was working closely with a number of landlords to improve.