Spiralling costs in dealing with illegal rubbish dumping has prompted the Whangarei District Council to consider introducing infringement notices with fines of up to $400. Recent changes to the Litter Act have brought into place provisions for infringement notices in place of issuing proceedings in court. The council will sift through illegalrubbish to see if it can identify the offenders and may introduce cameras to the worst spots to catch the fly-tippers red-handed. Councillors will be notified at their full council meeting on Wednesday of the recent changes, with staff recommending that amendments to the Act be adopted in Whangarei. Once the go ahead is given, the council will have to issue a 14-day public notice of its latest plans before establishing litter infringement offences and appointing liquor control officers. Council waste and drainage manager Gary Oldcorn said it cost up to $75,000 a year to clean-up illegal rubbish around the district. He said the volume of rubbish involved per year was not precisely known but job incidents logged into council's request system for attention was more than 500. Trailer loads of household rubbish, whitewear goods and dumped cars were among items illegal dumped. A mattress and base were spotted by the Advocate thrown on the side of Loop Rd on Friday. Despite being a non-collection day, three bags full of rubbish were put out metres away from the mattress. Mr Oldcorn said reports of car dumpings had decreased recently because people were realising the value of scrap metals. "In practice, identifying offenders is difficult, and even when offenders are reasonably solidly identified, the response when they are challenged is not necessarily positive in terms of changed behaviour." He said council staff believed infringement notices were a useful mechanism in dealing with fly-tipping. Mr Oldcorn said some district councils around New Zealand that had been issuing notices to offenders said the method, together with surveillance cameras, was effective in tackling the problem. The council is trialling cameras at its Ruatangata refuse station and plans to use them elsewhere. "There are other courses of action that we can take like full prosecution through the courts but in practical terms, infringement notices are bureaucratically simpler," Mr Oldcorn said. He disagreed that an increase in rubbish charges had encouraged illegal dumping. The cost of a standard rubbish bag - $2.20 - has increased by 57 per cent since paying for each bag was introduced in 2006.
