Gangs could be behind tonnes of dumped rubbish

Household rubbish was dumped in a rural lane at Crays Hill, near Basildon, Essex, earlier this year

Fly-tipping gangs could be behind tonnes of dumped rubbish in an Essex city, councillors said.

They called on Southend-on-Sea City Council to issue more fines to tackle the costly clean-up costs.

Figures showed from April 2021 to March 2022 there were 1,961 reported incidents of fly-tipping in the city and zero fixed penalty notices issued.

Conservative councillor Steve Buckley said criminal groups, posing as legitimate waste disposal businesses, could be behind the spate of incidents.

He told a council meeting, covered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, that fly-tipping had become a "huge problem" in the region.

The council meeting heard fly-tipping was costly to clear up

"One interesting theory is that organised crime may be behind the surge with criminals posing as legitimate waste disposal businesses only to dump the rubbish they collect on private land or public roads," he said.

Councillors heard clearing up rubbish could be costly and it was "really hard" for residents to submit evidence without an uploading system in place.

Labour councillor Lydia Hyde added: “The other benefit [of residents sharing evidence with the council] is you can potentially pick up vehicles that are doing it.

"We know that there are effectively fly-tipping gangs that are coming in to our borders with big vans, emptying them out on the side of the road and leaving them there.”

She continued: “It’s little known that local authorities have the power, if they’ve got officers with them, to stop search and seize vehicles they believe are fly-tipping. So having evidence, number plates of these commercial gangs, if we have that evidence we can do so much more.”