An opposition councillor says it took the council three weeks to log his report of fly-tipping in York – and says delays like this damage residents’ confidence in frontline services.
But the Labour-run administration has blamed the councillor himself for the delays, and accused him of “factually inaccurate allegations”.
Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Nigel Ayre spotted rubbish fly-tipped at the corner of Burnholme Avenue and Stray Road.
Acting in his capacity as the member for Heworth Without, he reported it by email on 23 July.
But he said the report was only entered into City of York Council’s system 20 days later on 11 August.
And even then, the automated response told him that the incident was “awaiting inspection” with the council giving itself until 19 August to complete the job.
“Twenty days just to log a fly-tipping incident is simply not good enough,” Cllr Ayre said.
“Residents should not have to wait nearly three weeks before the council even puts a report into its system, let alone actually sends someone out to deal with the rubbish.
“This is what happens when Labour leaves hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of council jobs open and frontline services are stretched to breaking point.
“The council says it wants residents to report fly-tipping so that it can tackle the problem.
“But if reports are sitting in inboxes for 20 days before they are even logged, how can residents have any confidence that anything will be done?”
‘Factually inaccurate’
The ruling Labour administration at City of York Council hit back at Cllr Ayre’s claims.
Executive member for the environment, Cllr Jenny Kent said: “Councillors have a very simple system for reporting issues and using that system would have helped resolve this issue weeks earlier.
“This waste was removed the day after it was logged with the council and by requiring an officer to log this issue instead of doing it himself, Cllr Ayre has simply delayed action being taken on behalf of his resident by around two weeks.
“Whilst all fly tipping blights our streets and is to be condemned, Cllr Ayre appears to be using his failure to report a single bag of waste in the simplest way in order to repeat factually inaccurate allegations about front line jobs not being filled, which he knows is untrue.
“This is really depressing and the people of Heworth Without deserve better.”