Opinion: Northampton deserves better than streets blighted by fly-tipping

I live and work around Northampton, and there is one sight I seem to encounter with depressing regularity: piles of rubbish dumped at the side of residential streets. Mattresses, broken furniture, household rubbish, builders' waste and sometimes entire piles of unwanted belongings are simply abandoned for somebody else to deal with. The photograph accompanying this piece was taken in Victoria Gardens, just around the corner from my home and a short walk from Northampton town centre. But it could have been taken in any number of residential areas across the town. What I find particularly difficult to understand is that much of this dumping appears to take place close to where people themselves live. I have seen unwanted items left virtually outside people's own homes. Those responsible then have to walk or drive past the mess they have created, just like everybody else. There is obviously a practical problem here. Dumped rubbish can attract vermin, obstruct pavements and create hazards. It also costs the council, and ultimately taxpayers, money to investigate and remove. But there is something else that matters: how a place looks affects how people feel about it. When streets are clean and cared for, it sends a message that somebody values the area. When mattresses, rubbish bags and broken furniture are allowed to accumulate on street corners, the message is the opposite. That matters to residents, businesses and visitors. It matters particularly around central Northampton, where thousands of people live, work and pass through every week. Personal responsibility has to come first. There is no moral justification for dumping your rubbish in a public place because disposing of it properly is inconvenient. If you create the waste, you have a responsibility to dispose of it legally. I would like to see much stronger enforcement against persistent fly-tippers. Where people can be identified, the financial consequences should be substantial enough to act as a genuine deterrent. If people believe they can dump a mattress or a van-load of rubbish and nothing will happen, some will inevitably continue doing it. But West Northamptonshire Council should also look carefully at the incentives created by its own policies. For householders, there are legitimate ways of disposing of unwanted items, and inconvenience is no excuse for simply dumping them in the street. That said, the growing cost and difficulty of keeping a vehicle in central Northampton, including having to pay for a permit simply to park outside your own home, will no doubt form part of the equation for some offenders. It does not excuse their behaviour, but local policy should make responsible disposal easier, not harder. Trade waste presents a similar, although more complicated, problem. Small businesses and tradespeople already face fuel, insurance, licensing, vehicle and other operating costs. Charges for disposing of commercial waste can never justify fly-tipping, but neither should we ignore the obvious risk that making lawful disposal progressively more expensive encourages a minority to take the illegal option. There is little sense in increasing the cost or difficulty of legitimate disposal if the council ultimately ends up spending public money clearing up the consequences. The answer therefore requires both responsibility and deterrence: make legitimate disposal straightforward and reasonably priced, while making illegal dumping an expensive gamble for those who choose to do it. There may also be a need for better public information. We should not have to explain to adults why dumping a mattress on a residential street is unacceptable, but evidently the message is not getting through to everybody. Northampton has some beautiful buildings, parks, and historic streets. Yet it does not take much rubbish to make an entire street look neglected. A town's appearance is not superficial. It influences how we regard the place in which we live and what standards of behaviour we come to accept. Fly-tipping should never become normal. And Northampton should not allow it to become so.