By Tom Rodgers
A man who once worked as part of a cleaning crew for Salford City Council has been handed a £500 bill for dumping waste wood on a city street.
54-year-old Thomas Ashton drove 12 miles from Little Hulton to Elton Street to dump wood, claiming it was saving him time and ‘inconvenience’ of going to the tip.
Staff at Salford City Council’s CCTV unit watched as he reversed his car onto the pavement and pulled five large panels and four smaller planks of wood from the boot before driving away.
The wood he left behind had long rusty nails poking upwards and put pedestrians and animals at risk of injury, as well as the risk of vandals setting it on fire.
Ashton, of John Street, Salford claimed the offence was “totally out of character”.
When questioned by council officials he revealed he had once worked as part of a council crew cleaning up after flytippers and therefore knew “first hand” what he was doing was totally wrong.
At Salford and Manchester Magistrates Court on Wednesday 24 June admitted illegally dumping waste.
He was fined £300 and ordered to pay £200 in costs and £30 victim surcharge.
Speaking after the case Councillor Gena Merrett, Salford’s assistant mayor for housing and environment, said: “I’m astonished by his actions. He knew first hand the mess, misery and waste of money fly tipping causes and yet gave no thought to any of that as he casually dumped wood in the middle of the street.
“Not only that but he drove 12 miles to do this – passing within a couple of miles of the tip. He should have done the right thing in the first place and taken the wood to the top to save everyone time, money and inconvenience.”
She added: “I’m also disappointed that the court only imposed a £200 order for costs.
“Salford City Council spends around £140,000 every year investigating and cleaning up after flytippers. I would like to see far more of that cost met by those who do the crime instead of the ratepayers picking that up.”
Salford City Council receives 283 reports every month of incidents of illegal dumping/fly-tipping. This prosecution is as a result of the on-going city wide ‘Operation Pandora’ which has so far prosecuted 26 offenders resulting in fines and costs of more than £23,000.
