SURVEILLANCE cameras are being installed at the borough council’s six recycling sites across the borough to crack down on problems with persistent fly-tipping at the sites.

The equipment, secured by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council with £48,800 of funding from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, is part of a pilot project to reduce the number of people dumping waste illegally in the borough.

It is being rolled out at all six borough council-owned recycling sites and five out of the six are now installed.

The recycling sites are at Popley Fields Community Centre, The Fieldgate Centre, Castons car park, Overton Hill car park, Brighton Hill Centre and Winklebury Centre. These sites offer the opportunity to recycle a wide variety of material including textiles, footwear, small waste electrical items and foil. 

Cabinet member for partnerships Cllr Jenny Vaux said: “By installing surveillance cameras at these council-run recycling sites we are providing reassurance to local residents that we take the issue of antisocial behaviour very seriously.

"It also sends a clear message to those who fly-tip that we will not tolerate their criminal behaviour at these sites.

"The images captured by the equipment will provide us with valuable evidence to support our fly-tipping investigations and prosecutions at these locations.”

The council’s powers to deal with offenders range from a £400 fixed penalty notice to prosecution, with the most serious offences attracting a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and an unlimited fine.

Since May 2018 the council has convicted 48 individuals and companies for fly-tipping and related waste offences, demonstrating its continued zero-tolerance approach to this type of environmental crime.