A man who lives in a road where people have been persistently fly-tipping for years says it’s impossible to police the problem.

The Comet: Rubbish illegally dumped in Chadwell Road, Stevenage.Rubbish illegally dumped in Chadwell Road, Stevenage. (Image: Archant)

Fridges, bookshelves and washing machines are among the items dumped in Chadwell Road, Stevenage, this summer.

The fed-up householder said: “They should just take away the need to fly-tip – it would be cheaper than installing CCTV and then policing it.”

The rubbish is dumped along the road at various times of the day and night and the man thinks his street is being targeted because it is a quiet area where no one will see what is going on.

He says tipping has been a headache since he moved to the road 10 years ago and believes the only way to solve it is for Herts County Council to change its rules on who can use household refuse sites, and what can be dumped there.

He said: “If they let the people doing it use the tip they wouldn’t have a reason to dump anything.

“Instead they refuse to let them use it or charge them, so they come and leave it in the countryside and then the council has to pay to remove it. It’s totally ridiculous.”

Spot checks by the Comet on the road found a range of items dumped in two separate piles along the road.

That’s the normal state of affairs, says the man, and the problem only gets worse in the summer months.

A Freedom of Information request put to Stevenage Borough Council by the Press Association revealed that the town has high levels of fly-tipping when compared with the rest of the country.

It showed that there was one incident for every 23 people.

The responsibility to clean up fly-tipped items rests with the borough council, which says it takes the problem seriously and encourages anyone with information about it happening to call the police.

A spokesman said: “We are aware of fly-tipping reports in Chadwell Road, and our environmental reaction team carry out visits every morning, Monday to Friday, to clear the land owned by the council.

“We have also been working with the police and other agencies to manage this problem and we are looking at further potential solutions to minimise fly-tipping incidents.”