A presentation on fly-tipping was given to the place services scrutiny committee by the council’s director of operations Trevor Nicoll last Tuesday.
He stated there were around 1,700 reports of fly-tipping last year.
Mr Nicoll said the “revenue cost” of “cleaning that up” totals around £90,000 in staff time and vehicles, and about another £75,000 in disposing of the waste.
He highlighted that the council “got rid of” 539 tonnes of waste.
Cllr Derek Long highlighted that the number of fly-tipping incidents amount to 33 a week, five a day – including Saturdays and Sundays.
“It looks like we’re doing a tonne of waste every week, more than a tonne of waste every week,” said Cllr Long.
“We’re doing the best we can and I’m hoping that there will be improved focus on this from the executive.”
Raising concerns over the number of fly-tipping incidents, Cllr Long says it is “not supportable”.
Mr Nicoll highlighted that the figures relate to public land – before stating the number is likely bigger, as there will also be incidents on private land.
Cllr Long said the issue of fly-tipping is a country-wide one.
“This is the nature of the society that we are living in, it is not just St Helens, it is across the country,” he said.
Cllr Long says it is “going up” and described it as “self-inflicted damage”.
He called on residents to phone in to report fly-tipping incidents.
Cllr Long said that “it is essential that, as a society, we are all collectively against this” and that the “disinfectant for this is information”.
He added: “So give us the information and the council will do whatever it can with it, and the more information the better our ability to proceed with this, in terms of fines et cetera.”