Spike in fly-tip and busking complaints in Wolverhampton
Complaints about fly-tipping increased by almost 500 in a year, new figures have shown.
But council bosses in Wolverhampton say the rise is down to a successful campaign to encourage people to report fly-tipping – with actual fly-tipping incidents down 50 per cent.
A total of 2,020 complaints about dumped rubbish were made to the city council during 2018/19, up from 1,553 the previous year.
In total, there have been 5,456 fly-tipping complaints since 2016. Another 1,672 complaints were logged as “accumulations of refuse” over the three-year period.
There has also been a large spike in complaints about buskers in the city.
Some 143 gripes were lodged in 2018/19 compared to just three in each of the two previous years.
Hundreds of fed-up residents also lodged complaints over noise.
There were 1,694 noise complaints, of which 909 were domestic noise issues and 353 were commercial noise complaints.
Others related to construction work, vehicles and street equipment.
Councillor Steve Evans, Wolverhampton council’s environment boss, said: “The council’s shop a tipper campaign has seen a 50 per cent reduction in fly tipping across the city.
“The campaign encourages residents to report fly tipping and these figures simply demonstrate the success of this campaign.
"The campaign itself has seen eight fly-tippers vehicles seized and four vehicles crushed for their criminal and selfish acts.
"Eighteen months ago, the council also introduced new rules for buskers to minimise any nuisance impact on local businesses and residents.
“This included simplifying the process to make a complaint. Prior to this, we understand many complaints went to other avenues with no agreed consistent approach to dealing with buskers.
“As identified, the new policy has seen complaints rise following the steps to control busking in our vibrant urban spaces.”
Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Wolverhampton South West Bart Ricketts said: “These figures show how that people in the city are worried about the spate of fly-tipping in our areas. Every car involved in fly-tipping should be crushed.”
