Plea to community over rubbish dumped in Stoke-on-Trent

The equivalent of 689 full skips of rubbish has been removed from alleys, streets and community spaces in a seven-week period, the council says

Communities are being urged to help keep a city clean after a council cleared the equivalent of more than 680 skips of rubbish in seven weeks.

The illegally-dumped waste has been targeted since 20 June by Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

More than 1,100 reported cases have been cleared and leader Jane Ashworth said the authority wanted residents to help keep areas clear.

"We know residents are fiercely proud of our city," she said.

"Just as we all wouldn't expect people to dump rubbish in our gardens, we mustn't accept it being dumped in our communities."

Council leader Jane Ashworth said she wanted residents to play their part in keeping areas clean

The crackdown followed Labour taking control of the authority in May and a spokesperson said there was a backlog of 560 reported cases to clear.

Extra CCTV cameras were brought in along with two new tipper vans and more clean-up crews, funded by the government's Shared Prosperity Fund.

Over the seven-week operation, 1,123 incidents were cleared and offenders given £400 fixed penalty notices when they could be traced, the spokesperson added.

The amount of rubbish cleared equated to 689 full skips and was removed from alleys, streets and community spaces across the city, they said.

A campaign was launched on Tuesday by the council to remind residents of what waste to put in each of their household bins, how to book waste collections and how to get to the city's two recycling centres.

Residents were also urged to continue to report areas of illegally dumped waste and the people responsible for them.