Brighton council leader apologies on South Downs fly-tipping

Cllr Mac Cafferty has blasted the rubbish as “simply unacceptable”.

“I didn’t know anything about the rubbish being dumped here. It looks like it had been there for some time,” he wrote to Nina Udeen, who contacted the Brighton and Hove city council leader.

Rubbish strewn across Sheepcote Valley

“We do as much monitoring as we can, but it is not possible for us to be able to monitor everywhere all the time, especially in the open spaces of the city.”

A video showing the waste, largely comprising empty cans of beer and old clothing, was sent to Cllr Mac Cafferty on Sunday, 16 January.

READ MORE: Disgust as part of South Downs used as 'dumping ground' by fly-tippers

“I am obviously very sorry to see the video,” added Cllr Mac Cafferty. “We rely on members of the public making reports and we receive thousands every year. Sometimes people assume we must know and that we are ignoring it.”

Hedgerows have been littered with waste

In the apology to the resident, Cllr Mac Cafferty goes on to say 851 littering fines have been issued since 2021, with a further 609 for fly tipping.

Cityclean, responsible for waste in the city, attended the site on Monday, 17 January – which is reportedly now free of rubbish.

It is not known who is responsible for the waste in Sheepcote Valley.

Disgusted resident Mrs Udeen had slammed those responsible for leaving the "unbelievable" mess after finding the rubbish in Sheepcote Valley, Brighton.

Following the discovery, Brighton and Hove City Council said it would send clean-up crews to remove the rubbish "as soon as it can".

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman previously said: “Unfortunately, we believe someone has seen fit to fly tip at Sheepcote Valley, and we believe this rubbish may since have been burned.

“Fly-tipping is an unacceptable environmental crime. It’s a local and national issue that blights every council and is one we take very seriously.

“This incident hadn’t previously been reported to us.

“We’re grateful to residents who do report these things so we can get clean-up crews out – which we will now do as soon as we can.

“We would encourage anyone with concerns about litter or fly-tipping to complete the ‘request a clean-up’ form on our website so that we can arrange to deal with it.”

“We would also urge anyone who may have information about this fly-tip to contact us.”

The council has been contacted for any further comment.