A litter-busting advocate remains concerned that fly-tipping around communal bins near city centre housing is not getting cleared quickly enough.

John Cena, chairman of the Island Community Group, from Duoro Place, near Dereham Road, said people are continuing to dump large items including a sofa, two fridges and children's slides and toys around properties in Paragon Place, Charles Square, Distillery Square and Golding Square.

It comes as Norwich City Council recently pledged to spend £100,000 on tackling environmental crime through its Love Norwich fund.

This involves the council providing CCTV in fly-tipping hotspots and more than 400 city firms have also been asked for their rubbish to be put out at set hours of the day.

Mr Cena, chair of the Island Community Group which looks after the West Pottergate area, said: "Fly-tipping makes the area look horrible. We have had an increase in graffiti. It looks a mess.

"Fly-tipping has got worse over the years and got worse since the closure of the Mile Cross Recycling Centre."

He believes this is because some people do not drive and can not afford to get items picked up.

Over the past month he has reported six areas in West Pottergate where fly-tipping was happening and was frustrated it took nine days for the council to pick up a discarded sofa.

He added bin collections needed to be reviewed, as did the lack of bin locks and believed a good way to reduce the amount of fly-tipping in the area was using a garage to put items that could be upcycled.

Mr Cena was also critical that Love Norwich Fund was based on a 2021 survey.

Alan Waters, Norwich City Council leader, said: "The vast majority of people do their bit to keep our beautiful city looking clean and tidy.

"This new fund will be available to take enforcement action in cases where this doesn’t happen, alongside other initiatives."