THE scourge of ‘man and van’ operations and Bromsgrove’s proximity to Birmingham are to blame for the town’s worrying fly-tipping problem, says the district council.

Of the 30 authorities that make up the West Midlands, Bromsgrove District Council received the eighth highest reported number of fly-tipping incidents last year.

Statistics from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs show that there were 1,738 incidents reported in the Bromsgrove district in the 2017/18 financial year – an average of nearly five a day.

That makes it the West Midlands ‘small town’ hotspot for fly-tipping, given the seven authorities with higher figures are all home to significantly larger towns or cities.

Birmingham (15,993), Stoke-on-Trent (5,846), Coventry (4,704), Sandwell (4,695), Walsall (4,367), Telford (2,911) and Wolverhampton (2,362) are the only areas with more reported incidences.

In comparison, Bromsgrove had almost three times as many fly-tipping incidents as neighbouring Wyre Forest (685) and nearly six times as many as Worcester (306).

A Bromsgrove District Council spokesperson appealed for help from residents to identify offenders.

They said: “Much of our fly tipping is believed to be from low level commercial “man and van” operations, and our previous prosecutions have been on this basis.

“The majority of our fly-tips are also along the border with Birmingham, and given that within five to ten minutes of entering our district it is possible to be in a quiet rural area, it is attractive to fly-tippers to do this and feel they can get away with it.

“We are looking at ways to identify those responsible, and have had success tackling certain hot spot areas, but this has largely spread the problem across more locations that make it harder to monitor and enforce.

“We are always keen to hear from residents if they see anything in their area that might help identify those responsible, and we also encourage people to make sure they are using a licensed waste carrier to make sure there is less risk of their waste being disposed of illegally.

“Our website has contact details for members of the public to report incidents to us.”