Gateshead’s disgraceful fly-tipping problem laid bare as council clean-up crews plead for change

Gateshead Council bosses have signed off their commitment to keep Gateshead’s streets clean and tackle fly-tipping throughout the borough. It’s a problem which council officers say is a drain on resources and often distracts from other work.

The council’s budget for environmental services was slashed from £13.1m in 2010 to just £6.5m by 2023. The last two years however, have seen a mild increase in funding, with an extra £2.7m allocated to improve Gateshead’s environment.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service went to a fly-tipping clean-up operation in the back streets of Howe Street off Sunderland Road, in Bridges. According to council workers, the street had only been visited for fly-tipping three weeks ago.

On the distracting problem of fly-tipping in terraced back lanes, Garry Swaddle, a council worker of over 30 years, said: “We have got two more today, one on Goschen and Balfour Street. There are front streets, main areas, we’ve got town centres.

“If we are clearing up a back lane then the front street is not getting done or a town centre is not getting the care it should. It’s just repetitive and sometimes you get six of these in a day, sometimes more.”

Michael Lamb, Gateshead Council’s service director said: “Unfortunately, it’s a common feature, this is what the teams are dealing with on a day to day basis. Fortunately the vast majority of residents are responsible, getting rid of their rubbish responsibly and keeping their areas tidy. But sometimes you have a minority that looks like a majority.

“At the end of the day, we want to help them to keep the place where they live clean and tidy. It’s a disgrace.”

The local authorities environmental team also re-iterated that members of the public can and should use the council’s website to report incidents of fly-tipping. In addition, the council is also educating schoolchildren on the perils of littering and how issues can be avoided sometimes by simply not contaminating recycling bins.

The council also has a new team of eight patrolmen for the borough’s back streets.

Earlier this year, the council also confirmed it would invest £6.8m in new waste collection vehicles and £7.7m in new machinery to improve pothole repair over the next five years.

Mr Lamb continued: “It is not about issuing fines, it’s about changing behaviour. I would be quite happy if people disposed of their litter responsibility, to help us and help them.”

The local authority is also working out the legalities around recently purchased covert CCTV, which would be used to find larger scale fly-tippers, usually unlicensed rubbish collectors.