Time to get a grip on fly-tipping, Eastwood mosque officials tell council

Sabir Hussain, secretary of the Russell Street Mosque in Eastwood, spoke out after a whole double bed, a fridge and freezer and other waste were fly-tipped in the car park on Tuesday.

“It’s a persistent problem which has been going on for years,” he said.

“Because our car park is private land, it’s our responsibility to move the rubbish — if we don’t, we get a letter from the council ordering us to, so they are penalising us for the problem.

“The council introduced selective licensing but it’s not had the effect. 

“The value of people’s properties has fallen 60 per cent in the past two years.

"The problem is people see rubbish everywhere and they think the area is fair game.

“Whatever the council is doing, it’s not working.

“If they put up cameras, they just move the problem on to somewhere else in Eastwood.

“We want to see more prosecutions and higher fines for fly-tipping.”

Mr Hussain said the mosque car park alone had been targeted at least five times in the past decade.

He said officials could not afford and did not want to have to build a fence around it to deter tippers, although he added: “They would just throw the rubbish over the fence instead.”

Rotherham Borough Council's Cabinet member for waste, Cllr Emma Hoddinott, said: “We are aware that residents have been complaining about the fly tipping on the mosque carpark, it is an eyesore. 

“It is the mosque’s responsibility to remove and prevent fly-tipping on their land, but council officers have been in touch to offer advice and support in how they can do this.”

Cracking down on fly-tippers is one of the aims of Rotherham Borough Council’s new link-up with private firm Kingdom Security, which is due to come into operation next month and will see the contractors charged with dramatically increasing the numbers of fines and prosecutions for so-called enviro-crimes.

UKIP councillor Allen Cowles claimed last month that a plan to tackle crime and litter in Eastwood had failed, despite an early wave of arrests and drug seizures.

Ongoing fly-tipping and other incidents showed The Eastwood Deal had brought little lasting change, he said.

Cllr Hoddinott insisted transforming the neighbourhood would take time, adding: “This is a long-term project. It’s about changing hearts and minds.”