Flytipping in King's Lynn is getting worse, Lynn News Letters
There has long been an occupational hazard to living near a recycling centre, but since the start of April, when Norfolk County Council introduced charges for all DIY waste, including timber, plasterboards, fitted furniture and flat glass, if you ask parish councillors, farmers, businesses and residents, within a wide radius of the Willows Household Recycling Site, they will tell you they have seen flytipping, already a problem, worsen, where it was bad before.
Though some county councillors claimed there is no evidence the new charges have resulted in increased flytipping, statistics never tell the whole story. Flytipping on private land, where it is the landowner’s responsibility to clear it up, will be under-reported.
Take Clenchwarton – plasterboard in the park, kitchen and bathroom equipment along Millennium Way, rubbish along Clenchwarton marsh and in drainage ditches, rubbish at the bus stop and by the sign at the entry to the village in recent months. All this creates a safety risk and also a flood risk. It creates work for the parish council to organise the clearing up, and work for the borough clean-up team. The borough council spent £47,000 last year clearing up flytipping.
The charges create the wrong incentive and offend ratepayers, particularly retired people, who have paid their council tax for a waste disposal service and then have to pay again to use it.
So if county claims to save £280,000 with the new charges, it is robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Local factory premises near the Willows Industrial Estate has seen double glazing, timber and fence panels accumulate in recent months outside their access road. This attracted the attention of the regional security manager who came to Lynn to see about the recent increase in flytipping and what could be done about it. It is thought there is a link to people visiting the recycling centre and dumping items in the access road they would have had to pay to dispose of.
But the county council did not listen on Monday. The review of waste charges cannot come soon enough.
Alexandra Kemp
County councillor Clenchwarton and South Lynn
