Worthing councillors blame rise in fly-tipping in the town on ID checks at tip

Photos taken by the councillors show discarded items dumped outside the Boxgrove Parade of shops, and others in South Street Tarring.

Councillor Martin McCabe said: “People are telling us there’s definitely been an increase.

“We’re making sure we report any fly-tipping we come across and we urge local people to do the same.”

He blames the increase on the new ID scheme introduced at the tip in Worthing, which he said was causing ‘chaos and confusion’.

“It needs to be scrapped immediately,” he said. “There’s no doubt it’s contributing to more rubbish being dumped illegally.”

But a West Sussex County Council spokesman said the introduction of the ID scheme ‘should not cause any difficulty’ for Worthing residents, and saw ‘no obvious reason’ why it would have led to more fly-tipping.

“Fly-tipping has increased both locally and nationally in recent years regardless of the changes to Household Waste Recycling Sites (HWRSs),” the spokesman said.

“Fly-tippers or businesses that do not keep good control of waste in town centres risk large fines.

“Our HWRSs have always only been provided for residents not businesses.

“To save £250,000 a year we now limit entry to West Sussex residents only and ask for ID to check this.

“This should not cause any difficulty for Worthing residents and we see no obvious reason why this should have increased fly-tipping in the town centre.”

Last week, the Herald reported that incidents of large-scale fly-tipping, blamed on rogue traders and other criminals, were on the rise in Worthing and West Sussex – read more here.

SEE MORE: How are councils combatting fly-tipping in West Sussex?