Once again the already understaffed police have announced a new crackdown, this time carrying out stop and searches of commercial vehicles in an effort to clamp down on fly-tipping (“Major fly-tip blitz”, September 19).

A worthy cause no doubt, yet it should be totally unnecessary. The previous Labour council encouraged this scourge by closing the Beckfield Lane tip leaving nowhere local for the entire west side of York to use. The current ruling coalition then clock up political points reminding us of that fact but they themselves have done nothing in four years to open a suitable replacement.

This crime is further encouraged by imposing charges on businesses to take waste material for proper disposal. Those hiring tradesmen to do work for them always want a bargain, as such some businesses and even customers will give into temptation and take risks to avoid what is effectively a tax on home improvement.

The waste all has to go to landfill one way or another so why have a system that encourages those to do it irresponsibly which ends up costing more money to collect the hard way? A simple change in policy could save money, police time and improve the state of our community.

Dr Scott Marmion,

Woodthorpe, York