Wandsworth councillor tracks down fly-tipper using address on box

Councillor Jo Rigby said the man left the rubbish after organising a football match attended by 1,000 people

A London councillor has made a fly-tipper remove his rubbish after tracking him down at his house using an address left on one of the boxes.

Wandsworth councillor Jo Rigby posted images of the rubbish on X saying she reported the person, who "left a box with his name and address on".

She later posted an update saying: "I went to his house and he's moving it."

Speaking to BBC London, she said: "I believe it's the role of councillors to do that sort of thing."

Ms Rigby, a Labour councillor for the Balham ward, said after finding the rubbish on Wandsworth Common she noticed an address on a box and walked to his house to question him about it because the council doesn't "like fining people".

After speaking to him, she said on X he told her "he had organised a football match on the common" attended by 1,000 people, and "the event generated all that refuse".

The councillor said despite planning "how all the stuff got here... in cars", the man "didn't have a plan to remove it".

"An easy plan would have been to divide it up with the people who arrived with it in their cars," she continued.

Ms Rigby said despite planning to get the boxes to the event in cars, the man "didn't have a plan to remove it"

She told BBC London the man was "surprised" by the encounter, as "nobody's delighted to have that on their doorstep - but I wasn't delighted to see it".

Ms Rigby defined fly-tipping as "anything that's not put in one of our bins" and added whenever she sees it, "I will always look for an address and so will our officers".

"Once there's one thing there, it's a green light for other people to go, 'it's OK, somebody else did it, so it's OK'," she explained.

"So the first person who does it has a huge knock-on effect for what happens afterwards."

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Ms Rigby added: "I'd say if you leave a bag of rubbish by a bin, it is as bad as just leaving a mattress next to a street corner."

"You're leaving something and you're expecting somebody else to foot the bill to come and clear it up", she continued, saying: "We do try and provide the biggest bins we can, and they're emptied as much as possible."

The councillor said the man had a large car and moved the rubbish within 30 minutes of her visit.

"It was a successful outcome," she said. "Massive thanks to him for doing that."

If members of the public see a fly-tip "I would say get in touch with your councillor, and say 'I've seen an address', Ms Rigby suggested.

"The councillor can take it to the officer team and they can then issue a fine."

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