A MAN told he could not dump a wheelie bin full of pigeon poo at a Barnsley tip drove to Wombwell Woods and dumped it - landing himself more than £1,500 in fines and court costs.
Alexander Cunliffe, 54, of Cherry’s Road, Cundy Cross, pleaded guilty at Barnsley Magistrates’ Court to an offence under Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 after being caught on CCTV flytipping pigeon excrement in Wombwell Woods in May.
Cunliffe had allegedly visited the household waste recycling centre at West Street, Worsbrough, where he was advised to bag up the waste so that it could be properly and legally disposed of.
Instead, he chose not to follow advice and to dump the waste as illegal flytipping at Smithley Lane, Wombwell.
Barnsley Council’s enforcement team used delegated powers to seize the vehicle used while the investigation was carried out.
In court, magistrates told Mr Cunliffe that flytipping is a serious matter and only the fact he was of previous good character saved him from losing his vehicle and driving licence.
He was fined £480 and a victim surcharge of £48. He was also ordered to pay costs of £953.88 to cover investigation time, recovery and storage of his vehicle, legal costs and £50 compensation to clear up the waste - a total of £1,531.88.
The council has been taking an increasingly hard line on flytipping, with officers now using CCTV cameras to catch the culprits and investigating cases to seek out whatever evidence they can, with 600 letters sent out to people suspected of being involved in just three months.
Council spokesman Coun Jenny Platts said: “Thanks to our enforcement team, we’ve successfully used CCTV footage to identify the culprit and seize his vehicle ahead of pursuing this court prosecution.
“This result is great news and sends a message to anyone thinking about fly tipping in Barnsley it will not be tolerated.
“As part of our #EverybodyThink campaign to protect the environment we’ll continue to use social media to share video evidence. We encourage people to share our posts as a warning to the minority of people who think this behaviour is acceptable together we can tackle fly tipping.”
See the video footage here, or see the council’s Facebook page or follow the hashtag #EverybodyThink for more information about the crackdown on flytipping.
