Fly-tipping rise blamed on people 'feeling better off'

People feeling "better off" is being blamed for a rise in fly-tipping in Bristol.

More than 7,780 fly-tipping incidents were reported to Bristol City Council in three months last year, 1,900 more than in the same period the previous year.

At a council meeting last week, head of waste Ken Lawson said fly-tipping dropped by a fifth when the cost-of-living crisis was "fully on" but now it was "ticking up again".

Councils are responsible for clearing up fly-tipping on public land and he said extra resources had been brought in to clear a backlog, which was another reason for the spike in the figures.

Mr Lawson said: "We think the cost-of-living suppressed some purchasing and now, with inflation dropping and wages going up a bit, we think we saw an uptick in expenditure towards the end of last year."

He said people were "potentially fly-tipping more" because they "felt a little bit better off".

"We don't have any data on that but nationally and certainly locally when the cost-of-living crisis was fully on, there was a 20% drop in fly-tipping.

"Towards the end of last year it started ticking up again."

Clothes banks and commercial waste bins are also being blamed for a rise in fly-tipping, which often end up with people dumping their rubbish next to them, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.

The council has removed a number of commercial bins from the streets to tackle the problem.

Labour councillor Tom Renhard said there had been ongoing issues at clothes banks in Horfield until they were removed.

"Repeatedly there was fly-tipping which would be cleared and then more fly-tipping would appear. It's been like that since last summer," he said.

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