Council begins campaign to tackle fly-tipping

The Love Your Street campaign focuses on six streets which saw between 28 and 41 incidents of illegal dumping in a year

New CCTV cameras are being used as part of a campaign to crack down on fly-tipping on "hotspot streets" in Stoke-on-Trent.

The city council will use eight new mobilised CCTV cameras in efforts to combat illegal dumping in popular areas of the city.

The Love Your Street campaign has begun and will focus on six streets across six areas of the city, including Hanley and Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent City Council said.

Funding for the scheme comes from a £46,000 grant from the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).

Fletcher Street is one of the roads which will benefit from the new measures

The six streets chosen had between 28 and 41 incidents of illegal dumping during a 12-month period until spring 2023, the council said.

The local authority is one of 26 authorities in England which were recently given a share of a nearly £1m grant to help tackle fly-tipping.

Councillor Amjad Wazir said the council wanted the city's residents to live in a "clean environment" and to have "clean streets and clean roads."

"We'll catch more fly-tippers, we'll fine them, we won't let them get away with it," he explained.

"People need to be educated you see, because this is where you live, you need to take care of it."

Starting on Tuesday, the Love Your Street campaign will run until September in:

• Portland Street, Hanley

• Goldenhill Road, Fenton

• Lindley Street, Burslem

• Cauldon Road, Shelton

• King William Street, Tunstall

• Fletcher Road, Stoke

During the campaign, the council said it would support residents to dispose of household waste appropriately and there would be an increase in CCTV, signage and enforcement action.

Councillor Andy Platt said fly-tipping had spread out from the town centre.

He said although the issue had been getting better over the last 12 months, they still received reports on a regular basis.

"So one thing that we need to do is continue with these different initiatives, the awareness initiative... but also the enforcement side as well," he said.

"Because it's really frustrating if you live somewhere and you know stuff is dumped outside your house or behind your house."