Rother fifth worst in fly-tipping survey

Newly released figures show the district had 967 reported incidents of fly-tipping in 2009, putting it in fifth place behind Hastings, Brighton and Hove, Crawley and Chichester.

But that figure pales compared to neighbouring Hastings, which topped the table with 3,448 reported incidents.

Overall Hastings came 29th in the national survey of 325 councils, which was carried out by a recycling firm.

Rother District Council said that since the survey was carried out, the authority has set up the Sense of Place team, a unit which specialises in tackling fly-tipping.

The council has also brought a number of prosecutions against fly-tippers, including father and son duo Robert and Matthew Bilsby who illegally disposed of waste collected through their skip hire business on land they rented in Westfield.

Much of what they collected was burned, including toxic plastics.

The pair, both from Brede, were jailed for eight months in December and ordered to pay £14,000 each in costs immediately, and pay almost £6,000 to landowner Stuart Howard for the clean up of his land.

Rother District Council, spokesperson on recycling and waste, Councillor Tony Ganly said: ”We take the matter of fly-tipping very seriously and the council has set up its own unit to tackle it, called the Sense of Place team.

“Since 2009, this team has been hugely successful in bringing prosecutions against fly-tippers and cleaning up fly-tips on public property.

“This was recognised by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) who recently upgraded our rating for taking action against fly-tipping to ‘very effective’.

“We also actively encourage residents to report fly-tips so we can investigate and clean them up.

“It is worth noting that Rother is actually one of cleanest districts in the country and one of the best performing Council’s in the UK for keeping its streets free from litter.”

To report fly-tipping or environmental crimes in the district, contact the Sense of Place team on 01424 787000.