CSI-style appraoch to tackling fly tipping in Telford
Fly-tipping offences on the streets of Telford are being treated as crime scenes – complete with CSI-style police tape.
It is the latest tactic by a council to fight the menace of rubbish thrown on the streets and in hedgerows.
Telford & Wrekin Council says it intends to turn every case of flytipping into the kind of scene you would normally associate with a murder.
That means the area will be taped off with police tape and warning signs will be erected telling people to keep away.
Council enforcement officers have taken the drastic step, starting with a pile of household rubbish in Brookside, Telford, in an effort to highlight a problem that costs the council £250,000 every year to clear. Up to 3,000 cases of flytipping happen in the borough every year.
The signs warn people it is a criminal offence to illegally dump waste, such as sofas, matresses and other furniture.
Council staff will also search the materials and are carrying out door to door enquiries including handing out information to try and flush out the perpetrators. They will use addresses from letters and bills that may be in the rubbish to track the offender down.
The CSI-style approach is intended to be the first in a series of similarly pro-active investigations to try and raise awareness of the issue of fly tipping and inform on how to dispose of your rubbish correctly and safely.
Councillor Shaun Davies, cabinet member for neighbourhood services, said: "The major problem with combating fly tipping is you effectively have to catch somebody in the act of discarding rubbish in order to make charges and ultimately a prosecution stick.
"That is why it is such a difficult issue for the council to tackle because you can't be everywhere at once. Residents can help by being our eyes and ears and reporting any fly tips they see.
"The CSI approach is intended to raise the profile of fly tipping as an issue and to make fly tipping socially unacceptable. We also hope that our investigations will reveal who it is who is gratuitously littering our borough and costing the taxpayer substantial amounts of money in clean up costs.
"We intend to learn from this pilot and if it proves to be successful, we will roll it out to other parts of the borough."
Residents can report fly tips and other environmental crimes via Telford & Wrekin Council's app Everyday Telford.
