A MAN from Leeds has become the first person to be given a fixed penalty fine for flytipping in the Bradford district.

His van was caught on CCTV being used to dump wooden pallets on a Bradford highway, in what council bosses have described as a "dangerous" act.

The Government has given local authorities new powers to fine low-level flytippers as an alternative to going through the courts, which can be lengthy and expensive.

Bradford Council had been planning to start handing out the fixed penalty notices from this Saturday, but its new computer support systems were set up quicker than expected and it has now handed out three fines.

The first was given to the owner of the silver Renault Traffic van on Monday.

A passenger in the van had been seen on CCTV cameras on July 13, illegally dumping the nine wooden pallets on a road in the Bowling and Barkerend ward.

The van owner, a Leeds man who has not been named, was traced through its registration plate and was interviewed.

He admitted being the driver of the van and the person responsible for the vehicle on the day the pallets were dumped.

He took full responsibility for the incident but didn’t give details of the passenger involved, a council spokesman said.

He has now been given a fine of £400, which will be reduced to £300 if paid within 10 days.

The authority would not reveal the exact location of the flytip, saying it did not want to reveal where its CCTV camera was.

The council uses both overt and covert cameras to investigate flytipping offences.

The authority also would not release the CCTV footage of the incident, citing legal reasons.

Two further fines were issued yesterday.

Two Bradford men were sent fixed penalties for flytipping bags of household rubbish in separate incidents on June 9 and July 6, in the same spot in Bowling and Barkerend.

A spokesman said both incidents had been captured on CCTV.

MORE TOP STORIES

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s executive member for environment, sport and culture, said the fines were “another weapon in our arsenal in combatting this problem which is a blight to the district and can be dangerous such as in this situation, where rubbish is dumped on a highway”.

Amjad Ishaq, environmental services and enforcement manager for Bradford Council, said: “Fixed penalty fines allow us to deal with small scale flytipping cases in a more efficient and proportionate way without out us having to prepare lengthy and costly court cases for prosecution.

“There really is no need for people to flytip and most people dispose of their waste in a responsible way by taking it to one of our household waste recycling centres across the district where residents can dispose of their domestic waste for free.

“Flytipping is a criminal offence and we have a dedicated team of officers to catch and bring to justice those who blight our district in this manner.”