TWO councillors have called on East Hampshire District Council to clean up Whitehill and Bordon by tackling the problem of fly-tipping. Town and district councillors Adam Carew and Philip Drury spoke to the district council's overview and scrutiny committee last month, where they drew attention to the scale of the problem. Mr Carew told the panel the evidence of fly- tipping and illegal dumping of garden waste was "everywhere you look in the town". He added that the issue threatened to undermine the council's Green Town Vision for an environmentally friendly Bordon of the future, as well as efforts to attract more investment in the wake of the Ministry of Defence pull-out. Mr Drury said he felt the district council was "reluctant" to use existing powers (and new powers under the Clean Neighbour-hoods and Environment Act) to deal with fly-tipping and called for it to clamp down on what was "just another form of anti-social behaviour". The OSC - the district council's watchdog, responsible for ensuring it meets its responsibilities and with the power to call to account any services found lacking - appeared to back the councillors' claims, with chairman and district councillor Jerry Janes saying that fly-tipping was a problem "throughout the district but is particularly bad in Whitehill and Bordon". The OSC was presented with a list of suggested measures to deal with the problem, stressing the importance of closer co- operation between authorities, more proactive prosecuting of offenders and better awareness among residents of how they can help. The key measure in the short-term is the reinstatement of a fly-tipping forum, set up by environment officers in 200, following concerns from Whitehill Town Council, but disbanded after only one meeting. The OSC has asked the council to re-establish the fly-tipping forum to assess the situation, this time with Mr Carew and Mr Drury on board, and report back to the next meeting of the committee in April. It will investigate known fly-tipping hotspots, including Walldown Triangle (in Mr Carew's ward), Hogmoor Enclosure (in Mr Drury's ward), Forest Road in Whitehill, Saville Crescent, Alexandra Park and the Deadwater Valley. Mr Carew told the committee: "The problem is horrendous. Almost everywhere you look in the town we see litter, fly-tip and illegal dumping of garden rubbish. If the district is serious about our Green Town Vision then it needs to help clean up our town. "It's bad enough for those of us who live here, but what sort of impression does all this litter and fly-tip leave for those who may want to come and live here or invest in our community? It's so frustrating when we've got a perfectly good tip just up the road (the Station Road Recycling Centre). "It's the taxpayer who picks up the cost or, in the case of the Deadwater Valley Trust, a registered charity." Mr Drury said: "The district council has powers to deal with fly-tipping but seems reluctant to use them. We need a robust approach with some high-profile prosecutions to set an example that the dumping of waste is bringing down the neighbourhood and costing us all taxpayers' money. "It's just another form of anti-social behaviour that blights the lives of all of us." Chris Wain, a member of the Deadwater Valley Trust (DVT), said that over the years the group had found construction materials, garden waste, trolleys, bicycles and motorbikes dumped in or around the river. The trust erected a fence on two sides of the Deadwater Valley car park, off Conde Way, to stop rubbish being left on the site, but has since found newspapers, plastic bags and car tyres thrown over the fences. Mrs Wain said: "We try to take this rubbish to the tip ourselves, because dumping attracts dumping, but this means a lot of our time is taken up doing that and not taking care of the more important job of managing the site." She said another problem area was Alexandra Park, where hazardous waste, including fridges and other white kitchen goods had been dumped and these were beyond the efforts of volunteers to move. Measures put forward by Mr Drury and Mr Carew include: n The relaunching of the fly-tipping forum to include councillors, the MoD, landowners, the Deadwater Valley Trust, housing associations, businesses and community groups. n The use of CCTV in hotspots. n More press coverage about the district council's fly-tipping hotline (01420 472743) to encourage residents to report problems. n More press coverage of what the penalties are for fly-tipping and more high-profile prosecutions. Mr Janes said: "The OSC is now aware of the fly-tipping problem inherent in many parts of the town. Fly-tipping goes on throughout the district, but is particularly bad in Whitehill and Bordon. The council has the problem that many of the sites which are targeted are not council-owned and local landowners are reluctant to deal with the issue because it costs them money. So there has to be a partnership approach to the problem. Council-owned land is usually cleared of fly- tipping within 24 hours." "The council has six weeks to set up a way forward before coming back to the OSC with a plan. I want this to be discussed at the next meeting."
