Slough Borough Council is reminding residents that even if their intentions are good, anything left outside a bin – even a charity clothing bank – is flytipping and anyone caught will be fined £1,000.
For more than a month, special CCTV and ANPR cameras have been tracking flytipping activity at Everett’s Corner in Cippenham with 29 fly-tipping fixed penalty notices issued in the first month alone.
Each fixed penalty notice is a fine of £1,000, reduced to £500 if paid within 10 days.
Seven duty of care fixed penalties were also issued to people in the first month who have given their waste to someone else, who has then flytipped it.
Each duty of care notice is a fine of £600 reduced to £400 if paid within 10 days.
But the cameras at Everett’s Corner, where there are two charity clothing bins, have thrown up another issue – residents who are trying to do the right thing by donating clothes, but ending up flytipping by leaving bags of clothes by, rather than in, the bins.
The council believes residents are assuming the charity bank organisation will collect the bags at the same time the bins are emptied, but instead it attracts more flytipping, all of which the council has to clear.
Greg Edmond, environmental crime team leader, said: “Fortunately for the charity, but unfortunately for residents, the bins get full quite quickly and residents, wanting to do the right thing are leaving bags beside the clothing banks.
“This is flytipping, whatever good intentions there may have been, and it is clear that even one bit of flytipping encourages others with less good intentions to flytip; that one bag of clothes becomes two, then that attracts more dumping of things like mattresses, broken furniture or worse.
“If the clothing bank is full, please take your clothing donations home, take them to the tip or even a different clothing bank. You may not think you are flytipping, but you are and if we catch you, you will be fined.”
The council is in regular touch with the clothing bank charity to ensure the banks are collected in a timelier manner and do not contribute to the flytipping problem.
Councillor Ejaz Ahmed, lead member for public protection, said: “Charity clothing banks and charity shops provide a great opportunity for people wanting to get rid of old clothes, but if the bins are full and the shops are closed, anything left outside is flytipping.
“The bags left outside are often ripped open, spreading those donations around, or everything gets wet rendering the donation unusable.
“And worst of all, it attracts other people to dump other items.
“We know people donating clothes are trying to do the right thing. But please, don’t turn your charitable giving into a flytip.”