Fury as Wolverhampton fly-tippers dump rubbish right next to prosecution signs
Defiant fly-tippers in Wolverhampton are getting bolder in their choice of dumping grounds – as these photographs clearly show.
Residents in Blakenhall woke up to yet two more incidents of fly-tipping in their area – both underneath signs that clearly state 'Fly-tippers will be prosecuted'.
The photographs, captured by passer-by Albert Blakeway who tweeted them, show bags of discarded takeaway boxes and packaging, clothing spilling out of over-stuffed bags and, at one of the sites, a rolled-up carpet and an armchair.
They were dumped in the Napier Road and neighbouring Byrne Road area.
Local councillor John Rowley was not surprised by the latest flagrant disregard of the by-laws. He described the area as a 'fly-tipping hotspot, one of six in the Blakenhall ward.'
He said: "It's an ongoing problem. My partner Judith Rowley found some fly-tipping material today which had a name and address in it.
"She has reported it to the city council in an investigative approach. But invariably this rubbish is dumped in the night and, with the best will in the world, all you can do is make sure it's cleaned up. I have no criticism of the city council in this regard. They do the best job they can."
Last year he called for public vigilance in a bid to stamp out fly-tipping near Colton Hills School in Jeremy Road, Goldthorn Park, after bags of rubbish were dumped at the entrance on four separate occasions in a month.
He said the problem had got worse in recent years, coinciding with an influx of tenants from overseas into the area.
Councillor Rowley said: "It is the worst single problem we have to deal with in Blakenhall. It's been particularly bad in the last two or three years which has seen an increase in the number of transient tenants.
"I'm not stigmatizing anyone but there are a lot of East Europeans in rented accommodation here, and linguistic problems have been an issue.
"One family from Eastern Europe living in a substantial property in Goldthorn Park don't understand you can't put everything into one wheelie bin, that there are different bins for different types of waste. Often they don't read and it's an educative problem."
He added that landlords were not without blame. "In parts of Blakenhall, private landlords have been known on occasion to dump stuff, so it is not only tenants," he said.
