'We need CCTV cameras': Anger as Blackpool's fly-tipping hotspots are revealed

The number of fly-tipping reports lodged with the council, which spent £321,000 cleaning it up and investigating it last year, topped almost 2,000 in the first six months of 2019.

Since the turn of the year, there have been 26 instances of illegal dumping in Dickson Road, which stretches from Gynn Square in North Shore to Talbot Road in the town centre and is the worst affected road in the resort.

There were a further 25 reports in Francis Street, a small street running behind Dickson Road.

One hotelier in nearby Banks Street said the area had a transient population, with people regularly moving in and out of rented homes and leaving rubbish outside.

But he said street cleaners are a regular sight, with seagull-proof bags introduced by the council - and handed out free-of-charge to properties without wheelie bins - also making a positive difference.

"Since they introduced them, there has been a vast improvement," he said, while two other hoteliers said they had not noticed a problem.

Another, in Cocker Street, said bin bags are still being dumped on a weekly basis, sometimes just hours after the routine bin collection on a Tuesday.

She said: "Last week, there was three red bin bags, a black one, and four of those big decorators' buckets.

"I called the council and, about an hour after, they came and cleaned it up.

"Where the decorators' buckets have come from, I don't know. The bags I would say come from residents.

"What we need is CCTV cameras up. Then we can catch the people doing it."

She said she often speaks to local councillor Ivan Taylor, who lives in Devonshire Road, the third worst street for fly-tipping, about the issue.

He said the problem is worse on terraced streets with back alleys, and said fly-tipping remains a "serious problem" that is "very much on everybody's agenda".

Fresh out of a meeting with his fellow councillors to discuss ways to combat the issue, Coun Taylor said: "We are working hard through a combination of moving the rubbish and acting against offenders.

"We will never fully fix it, but we are working hard to significantly improve it, and that's what the people who live in these areas want."

Coun Taylor said "amnesty days" are held "two or three" times every year in the Claremont area, when people can put their rubbish in a skip or arrange for the council to collect bulky items for free.

The service usually costs £19.50 for the collection of up to three bulky items, and £6.50 for each additional item. Workers collect furniture like beds and mattresses, electrical appliances such as fridges, computer equipment, and unwanted toys and bicycles.

When asked whether making the service free would eliminate the need for people to dump their rubbish, Coun Taylor said: "Bear in mind Blackpool has had the biggest cuts to its funding of any unitary authority in the country.

"We have lost half our staff because of that, and had to make significant cuts to services.

"It would be nice if we could provide a free service for a lot of things, but the reality of local government these days is we are in a difficult position and we have to use the money we have got the best we can."

There have been 22 fly-tipping incidents in Caunce Street, which stretches from Kingscote Park in Layton to Church Street in the town centre, and in Highfield Road in South Shore.

Central Drive, another lengthy road through the resort, had 21, statistics released by Blackpool Council under freedom of information laws showed.

Platt Street, which runs behind Buchanan Street off Talbot Road, had 18, while Lytham Road in South Shore had 17.

Coun Tony Williams, leader of the opposition at the town hall, said landlords should take more responsibility for their tenants dumping unwanted items like sofas and fridges by making sure they know who to call to get rid of them.

And he said people should also be wary of asking on social media for people to clear away their rubbish, because there are "a lot of cowboys who are not responsible at all".

Across the country, there have been reports of authorities prosecuting people for people who pay a man-with-a-van on Facebook - only for their rubbish to be dumped and traced back to them.

Coun Gillian Campbell, the council's deputy leader, said peoples have the legal obligation to check the person they hire has a licence, with those who don't leaving themselves open to prosecution should their waste be dumped.

"Fly-tipping and littering are one of my biggest bugbears," she said. "I would never do it myself and my kids would never do it, and that's why I was so keen to put the fines up", to the maximum allowed of £400 or £250 if paid within seven days.

Coun Campbell added: "It's really not acceptable to behave like this in Blackpool, or anywhere really.

"The costs associated with fly-tipping for 2018/19 was over £320,000 - that's a lot of money we could be using somewhere else at the moment, given money is so tight."

"The ones who are doing it don't care at all," Coun Williams added. "But people care when it's happening in their neighbourhood."

Coun Williams called on the council to extend the opening hours at the tip in Bristol Avenue, Bispham, and review its charges.

The recycling centre opens from 10am until 3.45pm from Friday to Wednesday, and charges £12.50 for a permit that allows residents to dispose of 75kg of hardcore, rubble, soil, and plasterboard once a month for a year. Waste that does not require a permit includes appliances, wood, batteries and fluorescent tubes, glass, clothes, scrap metal, and hard plastics.

But a permit is needed to use a "commercial-type vehicle", a move brought in to stop people using the tip for commercial reasons.

"We should start with more flexible hours at the tip, and look at opening another one in the south end of town," Coun Williams said.

The council also has a mobile van - dubbed "Rover" - which tours the area collecting bulky items. Click here to see its route.