A PLAN that critics say would have rewarded inconsiderate people who dump rubbish on the streets of Yarmouth has been firmly binned by councillors.From April 2007 to March this year Yarmouth Borough Council spent more £159,000 on cleaning up after fly-tippers, who left washing machines, sofas and bags of waste on roads, pavements and open spaces.

A PLAN that critics say would have rewarded inconsiderate people who dump rubbish on the streets of Yarmouth has been firmly binned by councillors.

From April 2007 to March this year Yarmouth Borough Council spent more £159,000 on cleaning up after fly-tippers, who left washing machines, sofas and bags of waste on roads, pavements and open spaces.

There was also one report of an animal carcass being dumped and three cases of asbestos being fly- tipped.

In a bid to tackle the waste problem the council had mooted the idea of free collections for all household or industrial waste.

At the moment fridges and freezers are collected for free and people have to pay fees ranging from £10 to £30 to collect 28 different types of other unwanted items.

However the idea has now been scrapped by council leaders on.

If approved the proposal would have been seen by some as a victory for fly-tippers - who would have been rewarded for their laziness and inconsiderate behaviour in not taking items to dumps or arrange for them to be collected.

Two other ideas to help prevent fly- tipping increase education and increased police involvement in clamping down on it were also discussed and warmly received by the council cabinet.

The council's leaders firmly ruled out the free waste collection suggestion and said the current mix of free and paid for collection was working well.

Cabinet for environment Jim Shrimplin said: “As far as I am concerned if it is not broken then we should try not to fix it.”

From April 2007 to March there were 14 prosecutions for fly-tipping and 297 warning letters were sent

out.

Council papers show that in the same period 362 transit van loads of rubbish were fly-tipped and 89 single black bags of waste were reported dumped across the borough.

It cost the borough council £64,792 to clear up rubbish left from small van loads and £41,630 for transit van size loads.

Most fly-tipping occurred on highways, back alleys and council land.