Brighton council cleaner caught dumping waste in street

9:56pm Tuesday 15th January 2008

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An investigation has been launched after a road sweeper was caught on camera spraying filth all over a residential street.

Video footage clearly shows a refuse worker purposefully spilling the contents of his collection in Furze Hill, Hove.

Brighton and Hove City Council, which is responsible for the CityClean service, said it was looking into the incident after police found a used condom among the mess.

It was filmed by an eagle-eyed motorist who stopped his car to record on his mobile phone the road sweeper dumping his load.

James Benning, a 25-year-old delivery driver, from Inwood Crescent, Brighton, saw it pouring out of the cleaning van into the middle of a bus stop on Monday morning.

He reported the incident to police, believing the foul mess could have been carrying dangerous syringes and effluent.

He said: "It was disgusting. I saw a more sensible disposal of waste when I was living in India for three years.

"It looked like waste from a toilet. There were brown lumps coming out of it in a kind of red gunk. It was foul.

"There's no way it should have been dumped five feet away from the curb at the top of the hill without a drain anywhere near it.

"He was just expelling it in the middle of the road. It's definitely not right."

Privately, the council has admitted to The Argus that the road sweeper, who has not been named, was wrong to unload his rubbish in the street and then drive away.

But a spokesman for the council described the act yesterday as normal practice.

Spokesman Alan Stone said: "Drivers are required to discharge tanks close to drains and this is what he is clearly doing in the video.

"Tanks can fill with liquid in an hour and they'd otherwise have to return to the depot just to put it down another drain."

However, Mr Benning said there was not a drain in sight of the spillage.

He added: "As soon as I took the film I called the police because I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. The driver then got back into his cab and tipped the machine back so all the sediment was shifted to the end.

"Then that all came out the tap as well. There could have been anything in there, even syringes.

"It was what looked like waste from the side of the road with fag butts, lots of plastic that looked like used condoms, effluent. It was very dirty."

Police said it looked like the machine had been used to suck up rubbish and then dump it back out again after Mr Benning called them to the scene at 11.20am.

Officers later told the council to come back and clear the filth up.

A police spokeswoman said: "We told them it's better that the culprit returns to clear up what he's tipped as soon as possible.

"If an offence of fly-tipping has been committed it will be up to the council to pursue it."

Mr Stone added: "It is water and litter off the street, much of which goes down drains of its own accord.

"The police are saying it contained one condom. If this is the case, it came off the street anyway.

"Inevitably some litter also drops out. However, the driver said the area was not left in a mess.

"We've checked that location today and it is spotless, so one way or another the council has cleaned that street very well."

Gill Mitchell, the Labour group leader and former chairwoman of the council's environment committee, said: "If this is a CityClean employee and rubbish is being strewn onto the road I'd expect the council to perform an immediate investigation as to why, as this is clearly, completely unacceptable."