A NUMBER OF councillors and campaigners across Newport, as well as local residents, are calling for a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to fly tipping across the city.
The issue has been ongoing in multiple communities in Newport, including but not limited to, St Julian’s, Beechwood, Maindee, Lliswerry and Bishton and Langstone.
In many locations across these communities in recent weeks, warning stickers have been appearing on bins across the wards encouraging people to dispose of their household waste properly by using the wheelie bins provided at their properties.
The warning signs report that any dumping of household waste either in or next to these bins can be classed as fly tipping and will lead to a £400 fine from the council.
Local campaigner Michael Enea is now among those calling for a ‘zero tolerance’ policy to be applied to fly tippers across Newport, claiming that it has become “more noticeable” in the last 12 months.
While there have been changes to bin collection frequencies in some areas over the last year, with Newport Council moving from fortnightly to three weekly collections in the summer of 2023, the exact reason why this appears to be worsening is unknown.
Mr Enea said on Facebook: “It has to be saying something when the council is now resorting to slapping ‘warning stickers’ on street litter bins.
“There’s obviously a problem when there’s a need to do this. If there were no problem, then there would be no need to display bright yellow warning signs everywhere on every street corner. It doesn’t look great either.”
He also explained that he had seen areas in the Beechwood and Maindee communities in particular where the warning signs appear to have “little affect” on people reducing their littering.
Some of the areas spotted as being issues recently have included Constable Drive in Beechwood and Durham Road in St Julian’s.
Mr Enea added: “We need to see fines. We need a clamp-down. We need a real clamp-down. We need a zero tolerance approach on this.”
He is not the only one that has been calling for an improvement to the fly tipping situation, as Lliswerry councillors Allan Morris and Andrew Sterry called for the ‘nightmare’ to end in their ward in November, while in October, Newport Council revealed that they have received more than 1500 reports of fly tipping since August this year.
Newport Council have described fly-tipping as “a blight” on the city, and are committed to a zero-tolerance approach, including a number of preventative actions to reduce the incidents seen.
They said: “We are working with residents to make sure they are disposing of their waste correctly, including offering advice and support on how to dispose of it.
“Our recycling rate is continuing to grow, up from 59 per cent in 2019 to around 68 per cent at the end of 2023/24.”
Residents are asked to report fly-tipping on the website or by calling 01663 656 656.