Man who let dog poo fester in front garden for WEEKS fined for environmental offence

A man who let dog poo fester in his front and back garden has been fined for committing an environmental offence.

Stephen Pearson of South Crescent in Boldon Colliery allowed waste and dog mess to accumulate in the gardens of his property.

Mr Pearson received a letter from the Council asking him to act on the issue, as well as to stop burning waste and to deal with a rat infestation after local complaints were made.

South Tyneside Magistrates Court heard how the 58-year-old failed to act on the Community Protection Warning Letter served upon him in April.

When the letter had still been ignored a month later South Tyneside Council served a Community Protection Notice.

The Court heard that the situation had worsened by the time a further inspection was carried out by Council officers later that month.

The resident was prosecuted for breaching the Community Protection Notice.

In his absence, he was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £200 costs and a victim surcharge of £34.

Elsewhere, South Tyneside Council has been clamping down on other environmental cases.

Ronald Bell, of Trinity Walk in South Shields, had his white van seized by the Council after the furniture was illegally abandoned in a factory unit ski at Royal Industrial Estate in Jarrow in January 2020.

The case also went to Court and it was heard how the vehicle had been captured on CCTV and later traced to Mr Bell, who had been paid to dispose of the waste but didn’t hold a valid waste carrier’s licence.

Mr Bell had failed to attend a interview under caution in February to answer questions on the matter, which led to the van being seized.

He admitted to being responsibly for abandoning the waste at a later interview in March.

In court, the 69-year-old pleaded guilty to flytipping.

Magistrates fined him £250 and ordered that he pay costs of £100 and a victim surcharge of £32.

A South Tyneside Council spokesperson said: “The Council spends more than £2m a year keeping the Borough clean and tidy and the illegal disposal of waste places an additional burden on taxpayers.

“While we do all we can to identify those responsible, prosecution is always a last resort.

"Although these cases can take some time to go through the legal process, we hope this serves as a reminder that we will, and we do, take action against those who fail to comply with the notices served on them. "Those responsible for flytipping offences also risk having their vehicles seized as well as a criminal record.

“We would always urge householders to make sure that the waste disposal services they use are legitimate and licensed.

"We also continue to ask people who witness an incident to collect as much information as possible.

"Where a vehicle is used, a description and any registration details are particularly useful in helping us to identify those responsible as has been the case here.”

To report fly-tipping contact in South Tyneside you can call the Council's Customer Contact Centre on (0191) 427 7000.