MK Conservative Councillors and Thames Valley’s Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner have pledged to start a war on fly-tipping in Milton Keynes after data showed a huge rise of 16% in reports over the past 9 months.
Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate, Matthew Barber, is backing Leader of the Conservative Group, Alex Walker, in his pledge to fund a mobile CCTV unit for every ward in MK to monitor hot spots and improve enforcement, if they take control of the Council in May’s election.
This comes on top of the Conservative pledge to scrap Labour’s current plans to make the tip booking system permanent.
The pledge arises amid a huge rise in fly-tipping across MK with an average of 500 incidents recorded every month. The dramatic rise in environmental crime was first documented by The Parks Trust in April, but despite warnings, fly-tipping has soared out of control in the city.
And with 4304 incidents of fly-tipping being logged in the nine months between April – December, MK is now on course to shatter the Council’s fly-tipping targets.
Conservative Councillors are concerned that the Labour-led Council are putting up more barriers to waste disposal that is directly leading to an increase in fly-tipping around MK.
As part of their pledge to invest in a war against fly-tipping, the Conservatives are also putting forward a £200,000 amendment to MK Council’s 2021/22 budget.
The amendment would provide an additional 19 mobile-CCTV cameras, one for each council ward designed to target fly-tipping hotspots and support enforcement against fly-tippers.
Milton Keynes Conservative Group Leader, Cllr Alex Walker, said:
“Residents are sick and tired of MK being turned into a rubbish dump.
“The latest figures show Labour’s approach to tackling fly-tipping has failed and communities are being let down as a result.
“We are committed to investing in a war against fly-tipping in MK, starting with the removal of the booking system at our tips when it is safe to do so, but also by investing in surveillance and enforcement measures to tackle the scourge of fly-tipping once and for all.”
Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Candidate, Matthew Barber, said:
“Fly-tipping can often be a result of organised waste crime. I am committed to working with the police, MK Council and the environment agency to tackle this as part of a wider strategy to reduce organised crime.
“I welcome the bold approach by the Conservatives in Milton Keynes which will see a tougher approach to dealing with the problem of fly-tipping which sees criminals profit and communities suffer.”
