Norwich City Council considering free skips in fly-tip fight

Housing provider Flagship Services offered folk the chance to get rid of their waste in two public skips last Friday and also collected rubbish for those without private transport to take to a tip.

Wensum ward Green city councillor Liam Calvert was one of the many taking advantage of the skip, dropping off a broken dryer, and believes Norwich City Council is still struggling to get on top of fly-tipping despite its £100,000 Love Norwich project.

Wensum Ward Green party councillor, Liam Calvert, dropping off a broken dryer at the skips (Image: Liam Calvert)

Mr Calvert said: "Fly-tipped waste is a real issue for people, with thousands of reports every year.

"Bulky waste collection fees charged to them are too high, especially as within areas of my ward, half of households don’t have access to a car.

Fly-tipping seems to be an every-growing issue around the city, despite projects in place by the council to stop it (Image: Liam Calvert)

"The Labour-run city council needs to make collections for bulky waste free of charge and look at providing local drop-off services like this to remove the temptation to illegally dump waste.

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"It's clear that we need an initiative like this to solve the problem.

Norwich City council leader Mike Stonard, second from left, visited the George Pope Road area as part of the Love Norwich Campaign last week (Image: Norwich City Council)

"By making life hard for those who want to do the right thing and doing nothing to punish those who abuse the area by spreading rubbish we're heading in the wrong direction."

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Last week, city council leader Mike Stonard carried out checks in the George Pope Road area of Catton Grove, ahead of clean-up work, as part of the Love Norwich project.

Liam Calvert said the city council needs to make collections for bulky waste free of charge (Image: Liam Calvert)

A city council spokesman said it's an "active supporter" of last week's public skip event, saying: "We liaised directly with the organisers beforehand.

"Waste collection and the prevention of fly-tipping are priorities for Norwich City Council and it's an active supporter of the event.

"Business In The Community have advised they'll be providing us with an impact report of the event, which we'll review."

The two skips were found in Cadge Road put out by local housing provider, Flagship Services (Image: Liam Calvert)