A London councillor has tracked down a fly-tipper at his home and demanded he remove his rubbish after spotting his details among the waste.
Balham councillor Jo Rigby shared photos on X of a pile of rubbish near a bus stop, quipping: “The person who dumped this on Wandsworth Common has left a box with his name and address on.
“This will cost him at least £400. Reported.”
Around 45 minutes later she posted an update explaining: “I went to his house and he’s moving it.”
The local Labour politician told the BBC she walked half a mile to his property to quiz the fly-tipper and try and solve the issue because the council doesn’t “like fining people”.
Thoughts on this flytipping incident.
— Jo ❤️ Balham (@JoRigby_Balham) May 19, 2024
I saw it on my evening walk with the kids. Reported it on @wandbc Flytipping form. Anyone can do this.
After a loop of the common I decided to go to the house 1/2 a mile away that was on one of the boxes. pic.twitter.com/fWoxNfhFch
The councillor later explained that the south Londoner cleaned up the rubbish within 30 minutes, which turned out to waste from a football match.
Ms Rigby complained on X that “a load of people had brought all that stuff in their cars“ and “there was no plan on how the rubbish made it home”.
When asked about the encounter she explained to BBC London: "Nobody's delighted to have that on their doorstep - but I wasn't delighted to see it".
Ms Rigby defined fly-tipping as "anything that's not put in one of our bins" and added whenever she sees it, "I will always look for an address and so will our officers".
She continued: "Once there's one thing there, it's a green light for other people to go, 'it's OK, somebody else did it, so it's OK'.
"So the first person who does it has a huge knock-on effect for what happens afterwards."
Ms Rigby added: "I'd say if you leave a bag of rubbish by a bin, it is as bad as just leaving a mattress next to a street corner."
"You're leaving something and you're expecting somebody else to foot the bill to come and clear it up.
"We do try and provide the biggest bins we can, and they're emptied as much as possible."
"It was a successful outcome," she said. "Massive thanks to him for doing that."
