£630 for fly-tipping furniture in car park

A York woman has been ordered to pay £630 for repeatedly fly-tipping, despite receiving waste disposal advice from City of York Council.

York Magistrates heard on Tuesday (3 December 2019) that Sharn Ogden (aged 27 of Martins Court, York) was seen disposing of a table and chairs in the car park of Martins Court on 29 July 2019.

City of York Council enforcement officers made multiple attempts to contact Ms Ogden, which she failed to respond to. On 13 August 2019, Ms Ogden admitted to leaving the waste and said she would take the items to the Household Waste and Recycling Centre. However when officers returned to Martins Court on 13 October 2019, the items had not been removed.

Since 2016, Ms Ogden has received several home visits from enforcement officers regarding waste issues in the area, six letters advising her how to present her waste correctly and two fly-tipping warnings.

Ms Ogden continued to present her waste unlawfully, has been charged for the removal of items and had now been prosecuted.

She attended court and pleaded guilty to one offence of fly-tipping. She was fined £312 by York Magistrates (3 December 2019) and ordered to pay costs of £286 and a surcharge of £32.

Tom Brittain Assistant Director for Housing and Community Safety at City of York Council, said: “We offer plentiful advice to residents on how to dispose of waste lawfully and safely and, as this and other cases show, we will take action when people fly-tip.

“It is important that rubbish is put out for collection as directed by the council. If you are unsure of your collection days, you can check at www.york.gov.uk/RefuseLookup or by calling us on 01904 551550.

“Residents can also take waste to our household waste recycling centres – see www.york.gov.uk/wasteandrecycling – or arrange for the council to collect it via www.york.gov.uk/BulkyWaste.”

Fly tipping gone

Fly tipping near the clothes banks at the Acomb Wood Drive shopping area has now been removed. The Council acted promptly to address the issue following our report last week. There is space in the banks for more clothes now.

Issues reported to York Council

While there has been some improvement in some local public services this week, we’re still finding, and reporting, a lot of local issues that require attention

ridge dumped at entrance to farmers field

A lot of local snickets like this one on Cornlands Road require more regular sweeping. Several now need to be resurfaced.

…..and we’ve reported full litter bins on Beagle Ridge Drive and Acomb car park

Fly tipping

York Council “doesn’t know” clean up costs

A York Councillor has been told, in a response to a Freedom of Information request, that it doesn’t know what the cost of clearing fly tipping in the City is.

284 cases of fly tipping have been reported in the last month. Guildhall, Micklegate, Westfield and Holgate wards worst affected.

The Councillor claims that new charges and access restrictions to the City’s recycling centres are resulting in more fly tipping.

There are certainly issues to be addressed in both east and west York.

Fly tipping incident on Council owned land

Rubbish has been dumped on a Council garage area on Little Green Lane in Acomb

Some time ago we reported full BIFFA bins that were being stored on the Little Green Lane garage area. They were eventually removed.

Unfortunately another full bin has reappeared.

It has been joined by a large amount of fly tipping. Some of the rubbish is clearly domestic.

We have asked local Councillors to look into the problem.

Some residents believe that the waste has originated with the York Council itself or one of its contractors. An explanation is needed.

Which wards are the worst for fly tipping in York?

The Council has started to publish more information on its “open data“ website.

Recently they listed the number and location of fly tips reported to them during July.

In total there have been 72 so far this month.

The worst affected wards are

Osbaldwick/Derwent
Guildhall
Rural West

Many of the reports concern black bags being dumped. There has also been a peak in the fly tipping of building materials.

Perhaps rather surprisingly dumped furniture has been an issue although various charities exist in York which recycle items like these.

It seems that the Councils decision to halve the cost of bulky waste removal has yet to have an impact on the figures. However one ward – Westfield – has announced plans to locate recycling vehicles in estates later in the summer.

Tackle root causes!

Residents rightly become irritated when they report public service problems and either they take a long time to clear up or the issue occurs again very soon afterwards.

This is particularly frustrating when potholes reopen and gullies become blocked immediately there is a shower of rain

We think that the York Council needs to get to the root causes of some issues.

They currently spend a lot of money clearing up fly tipping but have been very tardy in advertising the bulky waste collection service the cost of which was reduced substantially in April.

Recurrent litter problems occur on some snickets. It should be possible to identify, and fine, offenders. In some cases the littering is happening everyday.

Full litter bins like this one in Cornlands Road add to problems

Snickets off Tennent Road are regularly littered

The Tithe Close snicket is littered on most days

Its not just urban roads that suffer from littering. This Is Bland Lane near Knapton

Local Councillors should arrange for gated alleys – like this in Jute Road – to be cleaned from time to time

Bedding has been dumped on the playground on Cornlands Road

Some good news, some not so..

Work has started on the long awaited parking lay-by on Bramham Avenue

Unfortunately Bramham Avenue is one of those streets where footpaths are now badly worn

The litter on the Dijon Avenue garage block has been removed

The Acomb car park area was cleared of litter and fly tipping following our complaints at the weekend. Unfortunately more fly tipping has now appeared.

We’ve asked for weeds on Gale Lane to be treated

Biggest disappointment is the failure by the Council to respond to reports of littering on snickets. The problem on Tithe Close has been outstanding for a couple of weeks now

Other Thoresby Road snickets also have a lot of litter.

York business ordered to pay nearly £20,000 for fly-tipping

An investigation by City of York Council has uncovered and prosecuted a serious case of fly-tipping in the city, as part of Operation Eyeball a multi-agency campaign to tackle illegal waste disposal.

Haizhou Zhou (aged 46 of Outgang Lane, Osbaldwick, York) appeared yesterday [7 May 2019] at York Magistrates, where he pleaded guilty to fly-tipping and a related waste disposal offence.

Mr Zhou and two unknown male accomplices were caught on CCTV arriving at Ocean Corals and Reptiles, Clifton Moor, York, on 26 May 2018.

The three men discarded waste from a hire van into a skip next to the business. The waste included black waste bags, a wooden pallet, strips of plastic, cardboard, and wooden boards.

City of York Council officers noted that some of the waste recovered from the site belonged to Pegasus Textiles, registered as Pegasus World Ltd, Outgang Lane, York, for which Mr Zhou is the company director.

The incident cost the owners of Ocean Corals and Reptiles £228 for an additional skip to get rid of the extra waste.

York Magistrates fined Pegasus Textiles Ltd £13,200 yesterday [7 May 2019], he was also ordered to pay a surcharge of £170 and costs of £1012.64 as well as repayment of the waste costs.

Mr Zhou was fined £3938, ordered to pay a surcharge of £170 and costs of £500, as well as £228 compensation to Ocean Corals and Reptiles.

The council is working with North Yorkshire Police’s Rural Crime team and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner to lead on the development of the Operation Eyeball (cross-county work to reduce fly-tipping).

Together, this campaign aims to support communities to find alternative ways to recycle and reuse their waste, rather than resulting to fly-tipping.

To check if a carrier is licenced, visit: https://environment.data.gov.uk/public-register/view/search-waste-carriers-brokers or call the Environment Agency on 03708 506 506.

Residents can take waste to our household waste recycling centres – see www.york.gov.uk/wasteandrecycling – or can arrange for the council to collect it via www.york.gov.uk/BulkyWaste. Up to ten items can be taken so why not join together with neighbours?