Furniture outside homes is fly-tipping - police boss

Dorset PCC David Sidwick said leaving furniture outside your home and hoping someone will collect it amounts to fly-tipping

A police boss has suggested that when people leave unwanted items of furniture outside their homes for others to collect for free they are fly-tipping.

Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) David Sidwick was commenting on an incident in which a woman from Southbourne in Bournemouth was fined £500 for leaving furniture outside her house, inviting people to take it away.

Isabelle Pepin's action led to a fine and wide reporting of the incident.

Mr Sidwick said in his opinion similar actions are illegal.

He told a meeting of the county-wide police and crime panel: "There seems to be a sort of philosophy occurring that if you throw something outside your front door and hope somebody comes to get it that’s not fly-tipping.

"I’m sorry, but I think it is."

The commissioner said there should be a lack of tolerance for "micro tipping", where small amounts of rubbish are dumped, and also towards dumping arranged by criminals.

He said his office had part-funded a fly-tipping co-ordinator role for Dorset Council, resulting in a doubling of the number of prosecutions.

In some rural areas it has a team of up to ten people, often on horseback, helping report rural fly-tipping, he explained.

Mr Sidwick asked that people advertise what they no longer want on social media rather than fly-tip, or dispose of it properly.

"If you are disposing of waste make sure the person doing it for you is a reputable person because you will be subject to the fine, or sanction," he added.

"If it is subsequently found it is your stuff which has turned up where it shouldn’t be… it’s not only the carrier, but the person who has employed the carrier."

In Ms Pepin's case, a cabinet was left out, she said, as it "still had some life left in it".

An enforcement officer issued the fine to her on her doorstep after warning her to move the cabinet off the street three weeks earlier.

She said: "I have been living here for 12 years and I been doing this for 12 years and I've never had any complaints or indication that this was something that was illegal."

Ms Pepin later appealed the decision but it was rejected.

At the time Kieron Wilson, the authority's portfolio holder for housing and regulatory services, said fly-tipping was a major issue for residents.

"If you leave waste on land that isn’t yours, you risk a heavy fine," he said.

A fixed penalty notice issued by the council for fly-tipping is £500 if paid within 14 days or £1,000 within 28 days.