A recent Freedom of Information request found Rotherham Council spent more than £175,000 between 2024 and 2026 on clearing fly-tipping and public waste, with the mayor sharing strong feelings on the subject.
“It’s one of the most selfish things that anyone can do – littering, fly-tipping, graffiti, I hate it all,” he said.
“It brings down our places and it puts off investment. We need to clamp down on fly-tipping.
“I’ve set up something called the South Yorkshire Big Clean, working with the police and other partners including the criminal justice system.
“People who are going through community restorative justice are cleaning up. It is literally paying back to their local community.
“Fly-tipping is often a council issue, and the police have a role as well, but this has to be about putting social pressure on those people who think it’s OK to dump stuff out of the back of their car and leave the rest of us to deal with it – we need to speak out against those people we know is doing this.”
