Wireless CCTV cameras help track down flytipper

(14/12/2006)

Fly tipping is a criminal offence under the 1990 Environmental Protection Act, punishable by fines up to £50,000, or even a jail sentence. Salford City Council spend around £500,000 a year clearing up after fly tippers have done their dirty work in the city.

A fly tipper, featured in the BBC's Real Story show earlier this year, has been interviewed in connection with alleged environmental crime. Salford Magistrates heard how Ratcliffe, the flytipper, admitted he had left a box and a bag of rubbish at Salteye layby, off Liverpool Road, Peel Green, in September this year, and ordered him to pay out £500, a fine of £100 and court costs of £400. When he saw other rubbish left at the site by the busy A57 between Manchester and Warrington, Ratcliffe thought it would be all right to dump his there, too.

But the council had recently purchased some Wireless CCTV cameras specifically to tackle such problems. They checked out the rubbish dumped on the site, and were able to prove that Ratcliffe had left it there. They tracked him down and were able to establish he was guilty of the offence.

Earlier this year, the same unit explained to the Real Story show how the city is just one local authority nationally keen to step up action to help keep the city clean by cutting litter nuisance. Ratcliffe's case was one of those screened in the primetime show.

In July, the team secured the city's first CCTV-evidenced prosecution for fly tipping, using the Wireless CCTV kit.

Explained Salford City Council's lead member for environment, Cllr Maureen Lea: "We are determined to make Salford a green and beautiful city. One part of that task is bringing to justice those who believe rules set up to protect us all don't apply to them. We need people to know that we take all offences extremely seriously and will use our powers of prosecution where that is necessary.

"We have set up this environmental crime unit to use the latest methods available to us to target offenders and offences in our city, and to make sure laws designed to protect our city's environment help us to do exactly that."

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