Date: 16/06/2010
Council officials handed out 10 fixed-penalty fines during April and May as part of a crackdown on fly tipping in the High Peak.
And they have brought in a mobile CCTV unit to catch offenders red-handed in a series of environmental crime hotspots.
The fight back was launched by the Borough Council in the wake of an unusually sharp rise in fly tipping during April.
The 10 fines of £50 each were all paid within the allowed time, sparing the culprits a visit to the magistrates' court, a criminal record and the risk of a much higher financial penalty.
Now, John Haken, Executive Councillor for the Environment, has warned that enforcement officers will not rest until fly tipping has been stamped out. And he urged public-spirited citizens to act as the council's eyes and ears by reporting the time and location of any unauthorised tipping.
The council recorded 71 fly tipping incidents in April and 33 in May. An increase in such offences is customary during the spring and is known as the "spring clean effect" as households throw out unwanted belongings. However, this year's seasonal spike happened around four weeks later than usual, possibly because of the cold winter and slow arrival of spring.
Around 75 per cent of the incidents were in and around Glossop: a fact that may be linked to the temporary closure of Derbyshire County Council's Melandra civic amenity site to enable repairs to a weak bridge owned by United Utilities.
Councillor Haken said: "Irrespective of the so-called spring clean effect and the closure of the Melandra Road site, there's no excuse for irresponsible people to dump their rubbish wherever they choose, creating an eyesore and causing a health risk.
"Our Surrey Street depot in Glossop is open every Saturday from 8am to 11am for the disposal of bulky household waste. We have numerous neighbourhood recycling centres across the borough, we can arrange to collect bulky waste from the doorstep, and our kerbside recycling service is comprehensive. In addition, the county council's Waterswallows amenity site at Buxton remains open seven days a week.
"There are also amenity sites managed by other councils within easy driving distance", he added.
For more information on recycling and waste disposal, call the borough council's customer services team on 0845 129 77 77 or 01298 28400.
As well as the fixed-penalty fines imposed in May and June, the council issued seven warning letters, two formal cautions - which will sit on the recipients' police record and be admissible in court; and one statutory notice instructing a business to keep its surroundings clean and tidy.