A van that was used to fly tip "at least 12 mattresses" onto the side of a road has been crushed.
Footage taken by a Nan in Norris Green caught a group of flytippers red handed as they pulled up in a white van on Swinbrook Green. The video, taken on November 4, sees the men dumping several mattresses along with pieces of wood over a set of railings and onto a field.
The woman, who took the footage, told The ECHO: "I was with my grandson and I was going to take him to the park when I saw it happening. That's when I decided to film it.
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"It infuriated me because dumping wooden items for a bonfire is one thing but mattresses give off toxic fumes. They dumped at least 12 mattresses from what I could see."
After being contacted by The ECHO, Liverpool City Council said it was looking into the incident. Today, (February 10) Liverpool City Council gave an important update.
In a statement they said: "This van had been used in a number of serious fly tipping cases across Liverpool. The city council was about to seize and crush it until Merseyside Police discovered it also had no road tax. The end result was the same..."
The current fixed penalty for fly-tipping is £400, to be paid within 14 days. Failure to pay the fine may result in formal action being taken, with a maximum fine of £50,000 or twelve months imprisonment if convicted in a magistrates court.
The offence can attract an unlimited fine and up to five years imprisonment if convicted in a crown court.
Speaking about the council's increasingly robust approach to fly-tipping, Cllr Liam Robinson, Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said: "Under our new Keep Liverpool Tidy programme there’s a renewed focus on fly tipping and I would suggest people really need to ask themselves, is a £400 fine worth the hassle? And that could rise even higher depending on the case. The city council provides bulky waste collections and have recycling centres for big items. All I would say is use them. They are free.”
People in Liverpool can report fly-tipping, which includes the dumping of old sofas or mattresses, chemical drums, tyres, and bags of rubbish, on the council website.
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