The attractive streets of Havering are being turned into eyesores as fly-tippers dump mountains of rubbish in roads and green spaces – leaving tax-payers to foot the clean up bill.

This week you’ve taken to social media to share your experiences and told us about sofas, beds and even a bathroom being left in the borough’s communities.

Cllr Robert Benham, Havering Council’s cabinet member for environment, said: “Fly-tipping is a menace. There is no excuse for people who expect the local taxpayer to foot the bill for clearing up the waste they abandon in our borough.

“We are doing everything we can to bring these criminals to justice.

“We are making a special effort to expand our CCTV network in rural areas so we can catch these people in the act.”

The authority is cracking the whip as part of its Cleaner Havering Campaign, targeting those who use the borough as a landfill site and asking residents to ensure all cases are reported.

In the past 12 months £136,469 has been spent cleaning up 2,889 incidents of the crime – almost eight every day.

The council is currently investigating several incidents including one suspected case of dumped asbestos, in which it appears a local business was duped out of £1,100 by an unlicensed waste carrier.

It is illegal to dump or knowingly permit controlled waste to be dumped on land not covered by a waste management licence. Controlled waste includes household, commercial or industrial rubbish.

If evidence can be gathered the authority will take steps to prosecute those responsible.

The man who dumped 15 tonnes of waste in Rainham was fined £1,125 as well as being ordered to pay £972 in costs and a £112 victim surcharge at Romford Magistrates’ Court.

Another man was fined £5,000 for dumping 10 bags of building materials in Little Gerpins Lane, Upminster, while a third was fined £200 for dumping a large drum of dog mess in Hornchurch.

Reports of fly-tipping cases can be made via the “report it” section of the council’s website.

Alternatively anyone with information about fly-tipping should contact the council’s Streetcare Enforcement team on 01708 432 563 or email waste_enforcement@havering.gov.uk

See Editor’s Comment p16