Shameful state of Sunderland back lane as flytipper uses it as a dumping ground

Children’s toys, exam results, paintings by youngsters, hundreds of take away leaflets and clothing was among the rubbish left at the rear of Eden Vale in Sunderland between Wednesday night and yesterday morning.

Paul Johnson, 56, from Tunstall, is a former resident of Eden Vale and passed the dumped waste, which had blocked the back lane, as he cycled into work.

“It’s disgraceful, just to dump all that stuff, given you can just take it to Deptford,” said the support worker, who helps adults with learning disabilities.

“It was a eye sore.

“Obviously this has all happened in light of the council saying that they’re changing the bin collection and reducing it and the cost is going up for collections.

“I’ve noticed a lot more rubbish recently in the back lanes and along the cycle routes and it always seems to be going up.

“I just think the quantity that was left here was terrible.”

The council said it cleared up the mess within hours of it being reported.

Coun Mordey said: “As I and many others have been saying, to be successful in tackling this issue we need residents to help out by reporting incidents that they see.

“We also need people to think twice about when they put their bins out, and before disposing of their rubbish in back lanes or on green spaces.
“We all have a responsibility to help keep our city clean.

The council will continue to do our best with the limited resources we have available but to tackle this problem we need everyone in the city to help out.”

It comes just days after Sunderland City Council announced it was planning to make bin collections for everyday waste once a fortnight instead of weekly, with the charges for bulk collections to go up by £2.50 to £17.50 and the fee for composting and garden waste to increase the same amount up to £25.

The authority says moving to an alternate collection scheme between the green waste bins and blue recycling containers will save it £750,000 a year, with a £4.72million grant awarded to the council in 2012 to find the weekly rounds coming to an end in 2017.

Coun Michael Mordey, cabinet member for city services, said the council is carrying out a review of environmental enforcement, which oversees the action brought against flytippers.

The results of the discussions are expected to be complete by next month.

The council is also keeping a watch on social media after a rise in dumping elsewhere as unscrupulous collectors win custom through the sites.