Make council tips free to use for all if flytipping to be tackled

What more can be done to combat flytipping like this?

I HAVE every sympathy for those afflicted by the horrid curse of flytipping (The Yorkshire Post, April 6) highlighted in your pages recently. There are criminal gangs involved but that’s not the whole story.

Even this lockdown offers no excuse for fly-tipping – Mo Metcalf-Fisher

After the General Election of 2010, the Conservative-led coalition, under David Cameron, Nick Clegg and George Osborne, imposed severe cuts in local authority funding. Councils then sought other revenue to replace what was lost and for the increasing costs of social care.

Is David Cameron's government to blame for the rise in flytipping?

Some imposed charges for use of council tips.

Unfortunately some people then either dumped rubbish or turned to dubious contractors. Supposed savings for central government then led to increased costs for landowners and farmers.

Austerity had a price, partly paid for by the people who I suspect mostly voted Conservative.

Mo Metcalf-Fisher’s advice, on behalf of the Countryside Alliance campaign body, to householders to exercise a duty of care in choosing a refuse contractor is wise, but how much better it would be if councils were funded to allow free use of refuse disposal facilities to encourage the responsible disposal of all household waste?

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor