FLYTIPPERS beware – a new weapon has been unleashed in the fight to clean up Oxford.

A CCTV camera designed to catch flytippers in the act will be used on the city’s streets for the first time.

The futuristic-looking device will be stationed at hotspots blighted by dumped household items and rubbish.

Recordings will then be used as evidence in prosecutions against flytippers.

The £15,000 camera is owned by Oxford City Council and will be the first video recording equipment solely used to catch flytippers in the city.

A 2008 county council plan to install a camera at a “superdump” at Redbridge Hollow, near Kennington, was dropped amid fears it could infringe on nearby residents’ privacy.

Similar equipment has been used to successfully prosecute people in Didcot, Witney and Drayton.

The camera will be operated by Oxford City Homes, the social landlord arm of the city council, in partnership with the council’s environmental health department.

Anyone prosecuted faces fines of up to £50,000 and 12 months imprisonment.

Martyn Mumford, the city council’s tenancy operations manager, said: “We received a lot of complaints regarding people flytipping and disposing of household and builders waste in unauthorised areas.

“Initially we expect to catch flytippers as they blight the city and cost taxpayers’ money to deal with collecting and correctly disposing of accumulated rubbish.

“We also hope that it will act as a deterrent and reduce the amount of flytipping.”

Mr Mumford said the portable camera will be fixed at certain locations and footage recorded “as often as possible.”

In October last year, the Oxford Mail revealed incidents of flytipping across the county in 2008/09 fell by 30 per cent. In Oxford incidents halved from 3,566 to 1,773.

John Tanner, the council’s executive member for a cleaner, greener city, said the investment would also boost recycling rates as all flytipped rubbish goes to landfill.

He said: “One of the big things we are concerned about is people flytipping on street corners and around recycling bins. There are places all over the city where people feel they can dump rubbish.

“I think Oxford is improving in cleanliness a lot and there are bigger problems elsewhere, but I think Oxford deserves to be spick and span. If we catch someone we will prosecute them.”

  • To report illegally dumped waste or for advice on disposing of bulky waste call the city’s cleaner streets department on 01865 252900.

CAUGHT OUT

  • IN June last year, hidden CCTV cameras deployed by West Oxfordshire District Council caught a handyman and a welder emptying garden waste and rubble from the backs of their vehicles along Stanton Harcourt Lane, on the edge of Witney. Erich Kowalski, of Hurst Lane, Freeland, and John Whitehill, far right, of Eastfield Road, Witney, admitted flytipping — despite the council tip being a 10-minute drive away — and were each fined £750 at Banbury Magistrates’ Court.
  • In July last year, two men were fined after they were caught on CCTV illegally dumping office furniture at a flytipping hotspot, above left. Eugenio Banaga In Mereu, of East Way, Drayton, and Alex Griffin, of High Street, Drayton, were captured by a high-tech camera at Steventon Community Woodland car park. Mereu was sentenced to 80 hours’ unpaid work and ordered to pay £100 in costs at Didcot Magistrates’ Court. Griffin received a four-week curfew order with £100 costs
  • Spy cameras caught unemployed painter and decorator Martin Ponting, of Bow Bank, Longworth, dumping a wardrobe off Draycott Road, Southmoor, in July 2006. He admitted flytipping by Didcot magistrates and ordered to pay £700 in fines and costs.