Time to get tough with Sunderland fly-tippers

As we reported, the area around the River Wear has become the latest place to see a surge in fly-tipping.

And many people are fed up with the dumpers who are spoiling the area for everyone. Here's a selection of comments from our Facebook page.

Michael Watson: "Stick covert cameras up in the dumping spots and when these people are,identified hit them hard with big fines and crush their vehicles. Stop messing about."

Erica Tracy Fairley: "It's not wholly the councils fault for fortnightly bin collections and charging to collect items. However it doesn't help. I've just moved house and had rubbish to dispose of and it cost 60 quid. Not easy when money is tight to start with."

Dannii Marshall-MacDonald: "18 quid for the council to collect items - a service which used to be free. Bins being emptied less now. Yet council tax going up again. This isn't nice to see, but it's the council to blame."

Janice Thompson: "What do they expect? As someone said, put council tax up and cut services, won't even take rubbish away without charging you - it will only get worse."

Maureen Dagg: "Probably costs more to clean up fly-tipping than making more bin collections or charging less for collecting larger items. Might stop settees and mattresses etc by the roadsides, which they have to clean up in the long run."

Veronica McCaskill: "Yes, I would prefer weekly collections, but that doesn’t mean I just dump my rubbish! These people are selfish and just don’t care about their own town!"

Lisa MacDonald: "I wouldn't dream of dumping my rubbish anywhere other than in my own bin, and if my bin were full I'd take my rubbish to the tip. Bizarre to blame it on fortnightly collections. It's lazy people with no respect for their area."

Jessica Norton: "Did they not guess this would happen? Change collection back [to weekly], that's what we pay that council tax for."