YP Letters: Common sense way to tackle flytipping issue

YOUR article (The Yorkshire Post, April 15) does raise questions about what proactive action are Leeds City Council taking to reduce flytipping.

I recently attended a public meeting of my ward councillors where we advised that the council will be shortly introducing a charge of £20 per item for special collections, from home owners, of large bulk items like furniture and fridges. It is a service which is currently free.

The councillors at the meeting explained that where this policy had been introduced in other adjacent local authorities it had not led to any great change in the incidence of flytipping and this charge would go part-way to covering the cost of this service.

This measure, common sense would suggest, will certainly not reduce flytipping and can only tend to increase it. While it is understandable that the council has to try to find as many ways as possible to save money, would it not be sensible for the council to introduce measures alongside this that made the disposal of large bulk items by households much easier? They could allow small vans up to, say, three tonnes, to be treated in the same way as motor cars and bring waste items to the public refuse points at no extra charge, providing they had a Leeds Household Refuse Permit.