Council aims to tackle fly-tippers after fridges, asbestos and carpets dumped

Amber Valley Council has had public spaces protection orders in place on six roads plagued with fly-tipping for the past three years and is now looking to extend this by a further three years.

The legal orders, which include installing gates to block the roads and fines for waste dumped, are in place on Station Road in Ironville, Church Street in Riddings and Cockshutt Lane and Norman Road in Somercotes. as well as Anchor Road in Langley Mill and Castle Lane in Codnor,

Ahead of a meeting next week where the orders are to be extended by three years, the council has documented fly-tipping incidents at each of the locations over the past three years – with 16 logged.

Anchor Road incidents include fly-tipped Tarmac in July 2020; two flat bed trucks worth of a dumped cannabis set-up in August 2022; a fridge freezer in September 2022; a “drugs fly-tip including three fridges in September 2022; cannabis waste in January 2023, and asbestos in March 2023.

Meanwhile, a “motorised scooter/mobility scooter” was dumped in Church Street, Riddings in April 2023; window frames were dumped in Norman Road, Somercotes, in January 2020 and carpets were fly-tipped in Norman Road in June 2021.

The council says fly-tipping has been “resolved or significantly reduced” by installing lockable gates on the affected areas, which previously had “a high frequency of fly-tipping or anti-social behaviour”.

At the same meeting next week, the council is also looking to extend public spaces protection orders on 21 town centres and parks – including Alfreton town centre, Alfreton Welfare Recreation Ground, Riddings Park and Somercotes Park – in a bid to restrict anti-social behaviour.

These orders ban people from drinking alcohol or carrying unopened cans or bottles or other containers of alcohol in the borough’s town centres and parks.

They also ban people from “unirating or defecating” in any of the sites or in the doorways or alcoves of any publicly accessible buildings within the restricted areas.

A council report said: “Anti-social behaviour blights our communities and can turn what would be a pleasant visit to one of our towns, parks or open space into an unpleasant one.”