From regular contact with residents and update reports at monthly PACT meetings I've been aware of a number of incidents of fly tipping over the past few weeks in a specific location in Blackhall Colliery. On each occasion residents have reported it and it's been cleared away the same day.
However a street walkabout earlier today revealed the extent of the problem. Most of the fly tipping was in the back lanes between First and Second and Second and Third Streets and consisted of a mix of abandoned furniture, bags stuffed full of household waste and other bags filled with sawdust which was spilling into the street. In addition a mattress had been dumped in the back lane behind East Street at the bottom of Third Street.
Although much reduced in volume there were additional incidents elsewhere in the village, including another mattress abandoned in the lane behind Middle Street at the bottom of Park Avenue.
All incidents were reported this morning for clearance and the neighbourhood wardens team has been asked to sift through the abandoned bags of household waste to see if there is anything that might identify those responsible for the fly tipping.
From the incidents reported above it would appear that some of the individual streets are becoming a target for fly tippers. This is always a difficult issue to tackle without hard evidence of who is responsible on each occasion. So for this reason I will be asking for CCTV to be installed at critical locations (residents may remember that frequent and persistent fly tipping in the back lane between Fourth and Fifth Streets was put to an end when discreet CCTV cameras were fitted).
Last week I reported that a new Anti Social & Crime Initiative had just been established in Blackhall Colliery. In that article I confirmed that a bid had been submitted to the PCVC's Safer Streets fund for a number of measures (including CCTV) which would be effective in tackling issues like fly tipping and anti social behaviour in our community. Full details can be found in this link: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2023/08/new-anti-social-behaviour-crime.html
I'll update on progress as soon as I have more information about the funding bid, but in the meantime please get in touch with me if there are any issues you would like me to know about: rob.crute@durham.gov.uk
