By Laren Tayyip
January 15 2020, 11.04
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The ‘Don’t Mess with Croydon’ campaign has introduced a £100 reward for reporting information on environmental offences.
Croydon Council will be leafleting fly-tipping hot-spot areas with hard hitting messages warning people not to dump their rubbish.
These areas will be followed up with covert surveillance in order to catch and prosecute those damaging their community by fly-tipping.
Cabinet Member for Clean Green Croydon, councillor Stuart Collins, said: “All local councils need more backing from the government and I will be lobbying for tougher penalties and a national campaign against fly tipping.
“We will be running a campaign about reducing the waste people create and reusing what people already have.”
The ‘Don’t Mess With Croydon’ campaign is the council’s most high profile campaign.
Croydon Council now prosecutes fly-tippers and has prosecuted over 220 people including custodial sentences.
Thousands of people have also been fined for littering and Croydon Council has seized 42 vehicles used by criminal fly tippers.
The council has also negotiated agreement with courts and probation services so fly-tippers who are given community service are made to clean fly-tipping areas using Croydon Council contractors.
‘Don’t Mess with Croydon’ also runs a ‘Take Pride’ campaign which has involved Croydon Council setting up a street champions team of local residents and volunteers who keep an eye on their area.
There are 380 street champions who work with the council’s Street Champions coordinator and they together organise community clean ups, litter picking and removing fly-tips.
There have been 400 of these clean up events in Croydon so far.
Cllr Stuart Collins said: “ I am proud of the fact that the campaign has raised the profile of street cleanliness of tackling fly tipping and has encouraged people to take pride in their community.
“I am also pleased that we have introduced a new bin system which has increased our recycling rate from 36% to 47% diverting over 14,000 tons of waste away from landfill. This has made a real contribution to our planet.”
The Don’t Mess With Croydon reporting app has been used by residents and council staff which has seen a record amount of fly tips reported enabling contractors to clear as many as possible within 24 hours.
Croydon Council has also visited 55 schools and spoken to over 13,000 students regarding the climate emergency.
Several schools and nurseries have attended council meetings or council run events to speak and present projects.
Students have also presented paintings around clean and green themes and the winners had their paintings on the solar powered big belly bins around Croydon and also on the sides of their contractor refuse trucks.
Cllr Stuart Collins said: “The biggest challenge is that spreading the message to look after your streets and parks and to use recycling and landfill bins correctly is never ending.
“Croydon has some areas with a very transient population with people moving in and out so the message has to be continuous.”
