DISTRICT-wide figures for January show a dramatic drop in fly-tipping compared to last year.January is a notoriously busy month for dealing with incidents of fly-tipping.

DISTRICT-wide figures for January show a dramatic drop in fly-tipping compared to last year.

January is a notoriously busy month for dealing with incidents of fly-tipping. Old items are often carelessly discarded following Christmas and the January sales.

In January 2009, 107 reports were made, of which 45pc were bags left at collection points. This year, only 69 incidents were reported, of which 75pc were bags left at collection points.

Cleansing Service Manager Mike Daniels said: 'Bags left at bin collection points continue to be an issue. This week, we collected bags from Queens Road, Leiston Road, Southwell Road, Norwich Road, The Nordells, Lovewell Road and Avondale Road.'

He continued: 'Bagged waste left next to bins is not picked up as part of the waste collection service and is treated as fly tipping or littering, as a result, reports of fly-tipping increase.

'Outside the wheelie bin, bags are an obstruction and they have not been sorted for recycling and will usually end up in landfill. We would like to remind people to sort their waste and place it in the appropriate bin. Doing this should negate the need for any additional bags.

'In addition, furniture was left at Norfolk Street, Montgomery Avenue and Albany Road and we removed a television from Arnold Street and a gas bottle from Spexhall Way.'

This week the team also started work along the A12. This should take two weekends, with early morning starts and they are predominantly picking up fast food waste and plastic bottles thrown from cars.