Plea to help identify Hull fly-tippers caught on camera

One woman was seen dumping a mattress on Wellsted Street

People are being asked to help catch fly-tippers caught on camera.

Hull Council has released video footage of people they want to track down after dumping rubbish on the city's streets.

The authority spent more than £500,000 cleaning up 955 tonnes of fly tipped waste in the year up to March 2022.

The figures, obtained by a Freedom of Information request from Hull Live, also show that reports of fly-tipping increased year-on-year by almost 10,000 to 19,105 in the same period.

Footage includes a woman discarding a mattress onto a pile of dumped furniture in Wellsted Street and two men leaving a fridge-freezer in a passage near Brooklyn Street.

Two men were caught on camera dumping a fridge-freezer in a passageway

One resident who lives near a fly-tipping hotspot said the council was removing waste "every week".

"There's flies, it stinks," he said.

"If it's not mattresses it's bags full of rubbish. Literally you can't walk down there without getting flies all over you."

Fly-tippers are liable for a £400 fixed penalty fine and if their case goes before the courts they can face unlimited financial penalties and even jail time.

They are also liable for the clean-up costs and any vehicle involved can be seized.

Some flytippers attempt to use the cover of darkness to conceal their activities

The council's website says people who pay someone to remove their waste can be fined and prosecuted if it is found fly-tipped. The authority added that waste disposal companies must be licensed by the Environment Agency.

Hull City Council offers five free collections of bulky waste items each year, after that each collection costs £26.

The BBC has contacted the council for a comment.