Tory Stealth Taxes Fuel Fly-Tipping

Figures from the Environment Agency reveal that H&F has seen a significant increase in the amount of rubbish fly-tipped on the boroughs streets last year and that this has cost us all an extra and unplanned £1.3million to clear up.

There has been an increases in dog-fouling, littering and fly-tipping. Fly-tipping incidents alone have increased from under 6,000 per year in 2005/06, when Labour was in power, to over 9,000 2007/08 after the Tories took control. These increases are driven by Tory policies such as:

• cutting the street cleaning and refuse collection budget by £1m
• cutting the number of street wardens who were to meant to seek out and stop the people from dumping litter or allowing their dogs to foul our streets
• cancelling the garden waste removal service
• a new £15 stealth taxes for removing unwanted bulky household items

The increased fly-tipping has led to an unplanned £1.3m cleaning cost. Max Schmid, Labour candidate in North End, commented, “short-sighted Tory cuts are leading to worse services for North End residents and larger overall costs to residents. The barrage of new Council stealth taxes and increases in rubbish on our streets are two consequences of a misleading obsession with creating notional decreases in Council Taxes.”