About 2,300 people have been fined for dropping garbage from Bradford vehicles in the past year, and councillors allegedly went to people scattering garbage from parked vehicles.
“A councillor said some areas have been devastated by take-out customers dining in parked cars, and it's a good idea to throw all the waste out of the car window.”
At the latest meeting of the Bradford Council's Reclamation and Environmental Studies Committee, members were given an update on work to tackle trash and fly tips in the district.
The committee was said in recent years the number of people who have been fined cluttered from vehicles has increased significantly.
So far (April to March), the council has issued 2,293 fixed penalty notices to those throwing garbage from the vehicles.
This is an increase from 1,750 in 2023/24 and 657 in 2022/23.
The notice calls for people who caught people dropping garbage from their cars to pay a £100 fine. If they don't pay, they can be taken to court.
According to a report to the committee, “To enhance our ability to detect and review fly-tip and garbage incidents, the Environmental Enforcement Team has invested in funding for a bespoke CCTV Review Suite, which allows direct access to fly-tip and garbage footage from camera-engaged vehicle violations.
“In addition, more executives are trained to use the review suite, and moving forward will further enhance the team's ability to detect fly tips and messy incidents.
“Raw has important issues both nationwide and locally, and like many cities, Bradford has many takeaway facilities.
“This has resulted in trash becoming an ongoing problem in certain areas of the district.
“This cost of cleaning up waste puts a financial burden on the council and diverts resources from other important services. By dealing with take-out waste and promoting responsible disposal, the council can reduce these clearance costs and provide potential savings to reinvest in other projects and services.
“The implementation of garbage enforcement cameras has helped us tackle garbage from vehicles in the Bradford area.
“To date, 39 cameras have been installed in 18 locations throughout the district, resulting in a total of 4,478 fines for individuals who dumped garbage from their vehicles.
“The team remains committed to strengthening and expanding this initiative. Additional cameras will be deployed in newly identified problem areas, which will serve as a proactive and effective strategy to address the issues of garbage and take-out waste from the vehicle.
“The Bradford Council is one of the first non-London councils to adopt this recently enacted law, and remains the only council across Yorkshire to force trash from vehicle crime.”
Referring to the meeting fine, Councillor Anna Watson (Green, Shipley) said:
“For some reason, I think it's a good idea to chuck everything through the car window when people park and finish their food.
“Are you just moving vehicles that are subject to these fines?”
Environmental Services & Enforcement Manager Amjad Ishaq said fines can be issued to those who are scattered from cars on highways and council-owned land, but they cannot be issued fines for being scattered from cars in private parking lots.
He said: “99% of the fines are issued to stationary cars. We know there are areas where people take it home, park and dump the vehicle.”
Members were told that 39 cameras were set up in the following areas
City Center-12
Bowling and Barker Ends – 12
Little Horton 3
Manningham 7
Torah 4
Windhill and Wrose 1
The camera tracks the vehicle from the license plate and any waste dropped from the vehicle is treated as the vehicle's keeper's responsibility.
If the Keeper can't identify the actual person who dropped the trash, they will be held liable for the crime.
Telegraph & Argus recently visited Birksland Street. This is the road that connects the bowling back lane with Leeds Road.
Takeout boxes were scattered across the road and paved in some areas of the street.
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
English
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish