FLYTIPPING in York has reached such a point that council bosses could bring in covert CCTV or cut charges at the city’s tips to try and tackle it.

A decision at a City of York Council meeting on Thursday means staff will now look at ways to minimise the problem - and that could include covert CCTV at fly-tipping hot spots, bigger fines, cooperation with other councils, and cutting charges to get rid of bulky waste, or scrapping them altogether.

Haxby and Wigginton councillor John Gates put forward the motion, saying he wanted to tackle the “unpleasant and antisocial” occurrences of fly-tipping apparently happening more frequently across the city.

Cllr Gates added: “We all agree it must be stopped and discouraged. Residents hate it, councillors hate it, council officers hate it, landowners hate, everybody hates it.

“It surprises me that there is fly-tipping, because the facilities for legal disposal of waste are accessible and reasonable.”

He said there were different sources of fly-tipping - household waste, rogue small businesses, landlords getting rid of rubbish at the end of tenancies, and more organised fly-tipping from larger organisations that needs to be dealt with in a more joined-up way.

Covert CCTV and better enforcement of current laws could be part of the solution, he said, but they also need to look at how to make it easier to get rid of bulky waste legally.

He also accepted suggestions from Liberal Democrat Stephen Fenton and independent Mark Warters about recycling and reducing waste; and about cutting or scrapping some charges at Hazel Court and Towthorpe tips.

The debate descended into political bickering at points, with rows over whether or not Labour’s decision to close Beckfield Lane tip when it was in charge of the council would have contributed to fly-tipping problems.

Labour’s Neil Barnes said the number of reports had fluctuated between 1300 and 1800 a year until the second year of the current Conservation and Lib Dem administration, when it spiked to 2000.