County council's deputy leader raises concerns about "pandemic of dropping rubbish" across Derbyshire

Cllr Simon Spencer highlighted the issue in a meeting of Derbyshire County Council’s cabinet onThursday, June 4.

This comes after weeks – particularly bank holiday weekends – in which sites across the county, such as Dovedale and Chatsworth, have seen dramatic increases in visitors and a large surge in rubbish left behind.

Locals have stepped in to gather much of this waste and the police have tried to keep roads clear, saying that infrastructure cannot cope.

Cllr Spencer said: “We are dealing with a raft of issues such as behaviour issues in some of our beauty spots – we have had a pandemic of dropping rubbish, many tonnes of rubbish in some areas and it is just untenable to see how it is acceptable to do.

“Local communities have experienced traffic issues on the highways that we have never seen the likes of before.

“We are working tirelessly to address these issues. It will require the cooperation of traffic police and PCSOs.”

Cllr Spencer also told the meeting the authority has fixed 28,000 potholes in the last two months – more than double the amount fixed in the same period the year before.

This figure is also more than half the number it filled in 2019 – 53,000.

He said: “I believe that is a significant achievement and would like to congratulate my staff in achieving that, particularly given the challenges they have had to work under with social distancing in place and also the flood damage challenges we have had to deal with and are continuing to deal with.”

Cllr Spencer said the authority has still not received any funding from central government to make up the £20 million in damage caused to its highways and infrastructure by flooding and storms through the winter.

On the current situation with the Sinfin waste plant, Cllr Spencer says work to agree the value of the site is “yet to be agreed”.

Derby City Council and the county council had lined up a shared 25-year £50 million contract for the facility – to accept waste across the county and city.

This was terminated last August and work to calculate “estimated fair value” started and does not yet seem to have been completed nearly a year later.