Fly-tipped rubbish could be left on Nottingham streets for longer before being collected by the City Council to encourage proper disposal.
Fly-tipping, the illegal dumping of large or small amounts of waste, costs local councils hundreds of thousands of pounds every year to clear up.
Bulky waste collections are therefore offered as a way to provide people with the means of disposing of large items, such as cupboards and sofas, legally.
In April last year, Nottingham City Council introduced a £20 charge for the collection of up to six bulky waste items.
After the bulky waste charges were brought in some areas the council said had recorded an increase in fly-tipping incidents, including Sherwood where rates increased by 24 per cent last year.
However fly-tipping in the majority of areas decreased, the authority said earlier this year.
During a Communities and Environment Scrutiny Committee on October 4, councillors said fly-tipping remains a pressing problem for some neighbourhoods.
Cllr Kevin Clarke, the Nottingham Independents and Independent Group leader, described it as a “major problem in the city”.
Therefore they questioned whether there needs to be a change in how quickly fly-tipped waste is collected to stop people from taking advantage of the authority.
Cllr Neghat Khan (Lab) said: “One of the issues I’ve got is around bulky waste, because if you do the right thing and report bulky waste you could wait, depending on the demand, two to four weeks.
“But what I find when I’ve been out in neighbourhoods is…it is not other people coming to your neighbourhoods it is your local residents, your neighbours, deciding to put rubbish out.
“It gets dark, the first thing they do is put the rubbish out, get it outside, because they know a team will come and that will get removed that afternoon or the next day.
“So, for example, if I know that rubbish will go the next day I will probably not kick up a fuss with my neighbour, but if I knew that rubbish was going to stay there two, three days, four days, and it is going to smell, I would have a big issue.
“When I speak to residents that is the kind of thing they raise with us.
“As local councillors, we have invested in the new 4G cameras that are linked in to woodlands, and we are trying to catch people, but it seems these people with these kinds of ways are always one step ahead.”
Responding to the concerns, Mary Lester, the director of resident services, said: “With the bulky waste timing versus how quickly we pick up fly-tipping timing that would be a policy change.
“Absolutely it is possible and I think that is a discussion among councillors in terms of changing that approach.”
During the meeting, councillors agreed to discuss the issue further and made recommendations to begin to consider a potential policy change.
• Three months of fly-tipping action in Nottinghamshire district
