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WALTHAMSTOW: Company fined for flytipping

5:46pm Tuesday 9th March 2010 in


A COMPANY has been fined £1,500 for dumping rubbish in a Walthamstow street.

CCTV cameras captured a white van registered to Fieldstone Commerce Ltd dumping rubbish in Grange Road late at night on October 18.

Receipts in a large pile of rubbish also linked the waste to the company and the van was later spotted in nearby Station Road and traced to Fieldstone Commerce Ltd owner Ibrahim Altun.

Waltham Forest Magistrates Court yesterday found the company guilty of unlawful waste disposal and ordered it to pay £1,000 costs and a fine of £1,500.

Cllr Afzal Akram, council cabinet member for enforcement, said: “I am delighted that the courts have handed down a harsh penalty to these fly-tippers.

"Fly-tipping is a disgusting crime which blights our community and costs us all hundreds of thousands of pounds to clear up each year.

“This prosecution will send out a strong message that this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated in Waltham Forest and act as a warning to others who feel it is acceptable to uses our streets as a dumping ground."

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Comments(22)

peeg says...
6:31pm Tue 9 Mar 10

Great news. In my opinion the fine should have been higher though

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March Hare says...
9:08pm Tue 9 Mar 10

I often see builders shovelling rubble into the back of their vans and wonder which cul-de-sac, layby or parking lot it's going to end up in.

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Touchwood says...
11:12pm Tue 9 Mar 10

Should have confiscated their van as well!

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JonathanB says...
7:44am Wed 10 Mar 10

A good result and hopefully the start of lots of prosecutions against flytippers.

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1to1 says...
8:55am Wed 10 Mar 10

To Hugh Jed, Woodford Green.
Hear Hear!!.. Please mark my invitation urgent and I will start taking Laxative now.

I must say also that the fine isnt sufficiently high enough to act as a deterrant. People like this dont have morals and only understand the colour of money.

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ITISMEAGAIN says...
9:38am Wed 10 Mar 10

We need to get this message to people outside the borough. You should have printed his name and business and home address.I once saw a van pull up in Leabridge Rd near the Ice Rink,Two foreign occupants got out and started to throw wooden pallets on the grass verge.I asked them what they were doing ? The answer was, we dont want them. I told them we don't do this in England ,and they put them back in the van. Probably to dump elsewhere.As seen on TV a lot of these people in their own country, Dump their refuse outside their houses. They need to be taught a lesson, that it is cheaper to dispose of the rubbish in the correct place. Than pay a really heavy fine with costs ,for the council to remove it from the fly tip

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Helen, Walthamstow says...
10:35am Wed 10 Mar 10

Again an assumption that "foreigners" are to blame for everything and the remark about what "they do in their own country" is particularly misplaced. It smacks of hypocrisy in light of the report this week about the thousands of defunct televisions that this country is dumping in Africa, causing serious pollution. And how about all the chemicals, nuclear waste etc that we send of to countries like the Philippines and China?

I'm delighted that this fly-tipper has been caught and fined. Please just don't bring ethnic origins into this.

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ITISMEAGAIN says...
11:27am Wed 10 Mar 10

Tracey Melons , Has got it right in one.Every time someone states something that reflex what SOME Imigrants are like, and the way they live,We are called RACIST.We are not allowed to be proud to be ENGLISH and celibrate St. Georges Day. in this borough,as it might upset the ethnic.And there is no such thing as racist against the English

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ch815n says...
11:36am Wed 10 Mar 10

Helen, Walthamstow wrote:
Again an assumption that "foreigners" are to blame for everything and the remark about what "they do in their own country" is particularly misplaced. It smacks of hypocrisy in light of the report this week about the thousands of defunct televisions that this country is dumping in Africa, causing serious pollution. And how about all the chemicals, nuclear waste etc that we send of to countries like the Philippines and China? I'm delighted that this fly-tipper has been caught and fined. Please just don't bring ethnic origins into this.
Who said foreigners are to blame for EVERYTHING ? no one is insulting anyone from any specific ethnic origin but making more of a comment in broad terms, altho i do agree people from abroad particularly poorer countries have less regard of where & how they dispose of there rubbish. Its people like you Helen who really get up my nose, quick to jump on anyone whos mentions foreigners & quick to assume we're all racist, is no one allowed free speach anymore without fear of being accused of being a racist ?

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myopinioncounts says...
11:58am Wed 10 Mar 10

I think a language barrier is often the reason behind flytipping and other related issues.
The misuse of the black and brown wheelie bins that results in non collection IS worse in households where the tenants are not english.
Piles of rubbish build up until a neighbour fed up with the sight of it has to ask Waltham Forest Direct to make a special collection.
A leaflet that shows (in pictures) what can and can't be put in each bin should be put through the door of these properties by the refuse collectors instead of just ignoring the problem.

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Helen, Walthamstow says...
1:04pm Wed 10 Mar 10

Tracy Melons wrote: "The Sad thing about it is that people like Helen readily stand up for the rights of all and sundry not originally from this Land and yet despise the remaining OAP's, survivors from last war who mutter the odd objection to the erosion of british custom and values to such an extent that celebrating anything 'British' is frowned upon."

Blimey. For someone concerned that I will say she is as racist (a term I don't think I've ever used to describe anyone in a posting), our Tracy is quick to jump to a whole raft of totally unsubstantiated conclusions of her own.

Back to the original topic. Flytipping is not a new thing in this country. It's been going on since long before we had any large-scale immigration. I would refer you to the song, The Bedstead Men of England, written by Flanders and Swann in the 1950s. The final verse says: The lily ponds of Suffolk, and the mill-ponds of the west Are part of Britains heritage, the part we love the best. Our river-banks and sea-shores, have a beauty all can share, Provided there's at least one boot,
three treadless tyres, a half-eaten pork pie, some oil drums, an old felt hat, a lorry load of tar blocks and a broken bedstead there."

Flanders and Swann were gentle satirists (and very very very British -thus the quintessential Englishman Donald Swann was of Russian extraction and his father's middle name was Ibrahim) but they were undoubtedly referring to the social problem of flytipping. And that's what it is - a social problem not a race one.

By the way, I notice you have all conveniently ignored the reference to fact that our rubbish is being dumped in other people's countries.

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Walthamster says...
1:07pm Wed 10 Mar 10

Helen, no one reading this has gone to Africa to dump their television. That's also a crime, but a completely different one. It does not reduce the harm being done to Walthamstow. Myopinion's useful idea, which the council should follow, would not have been posted if you had managed to stop people discussing this.

Like it or not, flytipping is very often done by people who don't understand the local culture. I have seen people, speaking languages I don't understand, dumping goods in our street and I've offered them the phone number for council collections. But the junk has stayed there till I've phoned the council myself and got it removed. That means the people who dumped a hazard on our pavements got a free collection, paid for by us through council tax.

So I suggest the council should be realistic and make all non-commercial collections free, and publicise this on picture leaflets.

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Helen, Walthamstow says...
1:15pm Wed 10 Mar 10

Sorry, Walthamster, I meant to add a thumbs up for Myopinion's idea - the above posting had just grown too long.

And I don't think it's just non-English speakers who will benefit. A simple illustrated guide would be useful to us all though the council would have to prepare several versions since some areas have blue bags and others black bins for recycling, for example.

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Walthamster says...
1:36pm Wed 10 Mar 10

Good point, Helen. I'm not even sure myself what plastics can be recycled in Waltham Forest. I know that many containers have the recycleable symbol on them but our council doesn't accept them. instructions are probably easier for everyone in pictures.

But I would add too that we should shout louder about Walthamstow being our home, where all are welcome, but not to use it as a tip! If we don't like stuff dumped in the streets or piled up in front gardens, then it doesn't matter if that's acceptable in another country. We shouldn't put up with a deterioration in what's good about our own culture to fit in with someone else's.

Not that we can't make a mess all by ourselves, as Flanders and Swann noticed a long time ago! And have you got a url for the story about televisions dumped in Africa? That's something we need to get stopped too.

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March Hare says...
3:52pm Wed 10 Mar 10

Walthamster says to Helen "no one reading this has gone to Africa to dump their television". Perhaps not but we collude in the practice and therefore are morally culpable. I suspect most people here don't fly-tip their own rubbish but turn a blind eye to what the white van man who comes to take it away does with it. When it comes to foreigners, we don't just pollute other countries, we invade them. In fact our allies in Iraq, the Americans, seem to have managed to do both things simultaneously in Falluja - bombard the city and poison the surviving inhabitants, causing horrific birth defects. When it comes to moral equivalence I hardly think some ignorant Eastern European dumping an old sofa in our green and pleasant land is in the same league.

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Helen, Walthamstow says...
4:34pm Wed 10 Mar 10

Walthamster, I have been searching frantically for a link to the BBC TV
news report on Monday about the toxic TV dump with no success. However, in the course of my hunt, I came across the following report from a year ago on the same topic and was shocked to read that the company involved in that investigation is (or was) right here in Walthamstow.

http://www.independe
nt.co.uk/news/world/
africa/how-a-tagged-
television-set-uncov
ered-a-deadly-trade-
1624873.html

See also

http://www.soschildr
ensvillages.org.uk/c
harity-news/archive/
2009/02/children-afr
ica-risk-toxic-waste
-

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Ulysses31 says...
4:59pm Wed 10 Mar 10

http://news.bbc.co.u
k/1/hi/world/africa/
7897631.stm

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peeg says...
11:09pm Wed 10 Mar 10

What has fly tipping got to do with the Americans in Iraq? And why mention dumping in Africa? Its not like we regularly fly over to African countries to dump our old devices. And why bring up racism? Its true people from other cultures drop litter and dump it outside their homes. I've seen it first hand. Helen you should perhaps open your eyes, clean out your ears and step outside into the real world. And to March Hare ignorance is not an excuse

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March Hare says...
11:30pm Wed 10 Mar 10

So what's your excuse then, peeg?

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pclady says...
8:23am Thu 11 Mar 10

Builders-plumbers-el
ectricians are the ones who fly-tip -- most of them are cowboys their vans should be taken off them when they are caught

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Helen, Walthamstow says...
10:01am Thu 11 Mar 10

Peeg says: "Helen you should perhaps open your eyes, clean out your ears and step outside into the real world."

Of course, I know there is a lot of flytipping and of course I think it is anti-social and all possible steps should be taken to stop it and deal with the culprits if they can be found.

My point is that of course we don't fly to Africa to dump our old teles and computers but some British companies are doing it on our behalf. If you read the reports I highlighted above you will see what effect that has.

What that means is that we, as individuals, need to give serious thought to what we do with our old electronic equipment to make sure that it is responsibly handled, if only because we don't want garbage dumped on our own streets and we have a responsibility to make sure it isn't carted off to endanger the lives of people in other countries.

My own television is about to be replaced because it is on its last legs and, having read the website reports above, I am currently considering how I can sure it is disposed of safely and responsibly.

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AirForceOne says...
5:51pm Thu 11 Mar 10

Helen, Walthamstow wrote:
Peeg says: "Helen you should perhaps open your eyes, clean out your ears and step outside into the real world."

Of course, I know there is a lot of flytipping and of course I think it is anti-social and all possible steps should be taken to stop it and deal with the culprits if they can be found.

My point is that of course we don't fly to Africa to dump our old teles and computers but some British companies are doing it on our behalf. If you read the reports I highlighted above you will see what effect that has.

What that means is that we, as individuals, need to give serious thought to what we do with our old electronic equipment to make sure that it is responsibly handled, if only because we don't want garbage dumped on our own streets and we have a responsibility to make sure it isn't carted off to endanger the lives of people in other countries.

My own television is about to be replaced because it is on its last legs and, having read the website reports above, I am currently considering how I can sure it is disposed of safely and responsibly.
you are currently "considering" howto get rid of it. You take it to the tip, get the council to collect it or, if practical, get the retailer to tak it away. Its all contained in the WEEE directive.
As for dumping in africa its just nonsense. The africans, in particular nigerians, buy up a lot of redundant electrical equipment for use as spares. I think you could go as far as to call it recycling.
And people of numerous foreign origins do dump their rubbish in the street. Probably because theyre not used to a civic service like rubbish collection. Needless to say, go to an area full of well-to-do foreigners and their patch is as clean as you like.

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