A NEW team to crack down on flytipping and littering, will be hitting the streets.

Basildon Council's new five enforcement officers will begin work on Monday February 3.

The new officers will undertake targeted and out of hours enforcement across the borough.

Basildon Council already has a small team of street scene education and enforcement officers.

The council has entered into a trial with National Enforcement Solutions to further boost enforcement activity within the borough.

David Harrison, chairman of the council's neighbourhoods and public spaces committee said: “We realise that the vast majority of residents do the right thing with their waste.

"This is about targeting those who drop litter so we can hold them to account and deter others from this kind of behaviour. Litter affects our environment and we don’t want litter in our Borough.

“Last summer we ran the We’re Cleaning Up campaign to highlight the work we are doing to combat flytipping and littering through education and enforcement.

“This trial will enable us to take more action on those who continue to blight our communities - so my advice is don't drop litter or dump waste, and dispose of it in the correct way."

Residents have welcomed the added investment in the town.

They said more needs to be done to stop these incidents and clean up the borough.

Karen Reed, 44, from Basildon said: "I think it's good news that the council is taking this issue more seriously.

"I do agree something is needed to deal with this, I know there's a bad flytipping issue in Bowers Gifford.

"Hopefully this will help stop it from happening."

In July 2018 the council agreed to increase the number of officers by two to five to focus on educating and enforcing against the flytipping of household waste.

Since then incidents have reduced by 21 per cent.

The council removed 3665 flytips in 2018-2019, this was down from 4620 removals in 2017-2018.

Anyone caught flytipping can receive a £200 fine and littering carries a £75 fine.