UK's city of culture overrun with 'disgusting' fly-tippers

Residents in the UK's designated city of culture have slammed the title as a joke amid a spike in fly-tipping that has made it a "disgusting" place to live. Bradford, West Yorkshire, was awarded the city of culture title for 2025 in a bid to recognise and celebrate its signature culture and identity with a lively events programme helping to fund regeneration and boost local pride. The designation has rung hollow for many, however, who have pleaded with authorities to clamp down on the spate of fly-tipping offences that go unpunished while downgrading their quality of life.

Alongside mattresses and bags of rubbish, offenders have left broken glass and vermin-attracting food waste, with just eight fines handed out from the 10,600 offences recorded in the city over the last year - up over 400 from 2023-2024. "It's disgusting, honestly," Melissa Butler, 30, told the Daily Mail. "Every time I look outside, there's more rubbish. It feels like it's coming from all directions - people just pull up in vans or cars and dump things like it's a tip."

"One day it's just a few bags, the next there's a mattress," she added. "I went to the supermarket and came back to find a front door dumped behind my house.

"I've got two boys, and they play out the back because it's safer than letting them near the main road - but they shouldn't have to play next to piles of rotting rubbish and the rats it attracts.

"Once, someone literally dumped a load of rubbish right in the middle of the road. Not on the grass verge - right across the tarmac, so the people who live further up couldn't even get their cars through."

Ms Butler said she had made numerous reports to Bradford Council, but even when workers came to clear the rubbish, it wasn't long until it built back up again.

Amanda Buckingham, 52, added: "When I first moved here, they said they were going to sort the rubbish out. But now it's everywhere, absolutely everywhere."

"I used to clean it all up myself - every week for months and months," she added. "But in the end, I just gave up. It does your head in. What's the point when it's back a few days later?"

Rebecca Crow, 45, suggested that the council's rubbish collection policies could be disincentivising residents from following proper procedures.

Smaller waste can be deposited at waste disposal sites with a council-acquired permit, but larger items can't be dropped off in vans or trailers - and instead must be collected by the local authority, with a £50 fee.

"I think the council's made it too hard for people to get rid of rubbish properly - that's why so much of it ends up dumped in alleyways and fields," she said. "If you make it too difficult for people to do the right thing, they'll find another way."

Bradford Council said it is planning to install ten more hidden CCTV cameras to catch fly-tippers in the act - with penalties including criminal charges, an unlimited fine and up to five years behind bars.

Cllr Sarah Ferriby, Portfolio Holder for Healthy People and Places, said: "We are working hard to maintain a clean and attractive environment, especially when a global spotlight is on our District in our City of Culture Year, but also beyond this, so that we can all take pride in it.

"But we need everyone's help in reporting incidents of littering and fly-tipping. If you see something, whether it's fly-tipping, someone throwing litter from a vehicle or general littering, please report it.

"Action will be taken. Anyone thinking of fly-tipping is warned they will be fined or prosecuted. Using one of our Household Waste Recycling Centres is free if you live in our district."