Fly-tipping stain on our beauty

PEOPLE who blight the region with rubbish are being targeted in a new campaign by East Riding Council to clean up the area.

Since May, the authority has issued 11 warning letters to people caught fly- tipping waste in alleyways and on council land.

Rubbish has included mattresses, brick rubble, electrical goods and garden waste.

Nigel Leighton, the council's director of environment and neighbourhood services, said: "Fly-tipping is absolutely unacceptable.

"In cases where we can get evidence, we prosecute and try to recover the costs.

"We live in a beautiful part of the country but there is a small minority who see a quiet road or lane as a dumping ground and spoil it for others."

A letter is issued to offenders if he or she removes the waste, incurring no cost to the council.

A formal caution was issued to one culprit earlier this year, after they dumped ten bags of garden waste near Coniston, Skirlaugh.

The rubbish was later removed by the council, after a member of the public contacted them to report the problem.

The authority is currently in the process of prosecu- ting eight individuals for fly-tipping in the area.

One of whom is a fast food restaurant owner in Goole.

Shaid Warsi, of Rajas Fast Foods in Carter Street, failed to appear at Beverley Magistrates' Court yesterday morning, charged with dumping waste illegally without the correct permit.

A warrant has since been issued for his arrest.

A council spokesman said: "We take fly-tipping very seriously.

"It costs £3m a year to keep our highways, streets and beaches clean.

"This will not be tolerated any longer."

A number of dumped waste cannabis plants and electrical parts were recently discovered by the council in a lay-by near North Cave.

The waste, which is believed to have come from the Hull area, included boxes and sacks of soil, hundreds of root balls and stems of cannabis plants, remnants of air ducting, electrical tools and equipment and household items.

The waste was dumped in the B1230 lay-by at its junction with the A1034 to Market Weighton sometime between the evening of Thursday, July 11, and the following morning.

It was removed and destroyed at the expense of council taxpayers.

Mr Leighton said: "Whoever did this drove around the East Riding countryside looking for somewhere to fly-tip this waste."

East Riding Council is appealing for witnesses.

People can report fly- tipping by visiting www.east riding.gov.uk or by calling 01482 393939.

Those prosecuted in crown court face unlimited fines and up to five years in prison.

Those prosecuted in magistrates' court face fines up to £50,000 and 12 months in prison.