FLY-tipping across Craven has increased during the coronavirus pandemic, and has continued to be an issue even following the reopening of household waste sites, heard councillors.

A ‘couple’ of fixed penalties had been issued in the second quarter of the year, which had a total of 50 incidents and an increase of three more than during the first quarter of 2020, which had also been high.

Director of services, Paul Ellis, told Craven District Council’s Policy Committee meeting that ‘hot spot’ areas had been identified and CCTV cameras installed, but unfortunately it pushed the problem to different places.

In his report to the committee, Rob Atkins, exchequer and performance manager, said: “There is a particular concern around the number of fly-tipping incidents, which seems to have increased over the first half of this year. This is likely to be related to either perceived or actual restrictions on appropriate waste disposal at this present time.

“The Cleaner Neighbourhoods team are working hard to address this, including placing cameras at known hotspots and actively monitoring areas where incidence is particularly high.”