Episode 14 Filthy Rotten Scoundrels

Every day a never-ending war is being waged across Britain

to clean up our towns and countryside.

They've no consideration at all

for the people and the animals and the welfare of anybody else.

They only think of themselves.

People are just so lazy.

From the tons of cigarette butts, dogs' mess and household rubbish

to mountains of tyres and skip loads of builders' waste.

If you're not going to keep it clean, who'd want to live here?

I certainly wouldn't.

It's terrible. It's a blight to the countryside.

We're on the front line of the clear-up

and the fightback

with our dedicated teams tracking down the rogues

and putting the "great" back into Britain.

It may harm your defence if you fail to mention something which you later rely on in court.

On today's programme, a grisly mystery

which involved Leicester's city wardens stumbling across...

human remains.

It could have been a murder scene, anything.

And a story I love - the future's bright for all of us

trying to avoid stepping in dogs' muck.

People can actually see it when they walk along the road.

It also stops people treading in it.

Welcome to the world of filthy, rotten scoundrels.

First today, we're in the heart of Britain,

in Leicester in the East Midlands.

Here, as in many British towns and cities,

it can sometimes feel like a never-ending battle

to keep litter louts, fly-tippers and graffiti vandals at bay.

And wait till you hear how much it costs.

The city council spends over £300,000 each year

dealing with rubbish that's been dumped illegally.

It's very easy to dispose of waste. You ring the council.

They collect bulky items - beds, fridges.

All you have to do is ring them and they come and get them.

There's no excuse for fly-tipping.

Say "buongiorno" to Ian Reeds.

He's recently left his career as an archaeologist

to bring a little bit of Venetian magic to the people of Leicester.

This is just his second day of trading,

and it's important to him Leicester looks "bella bella",

not something the fly-tippers care that much about.

Thanks very much.

'It seems to be quite a British phenomenon. You don't get it in France or Italy.'

I'm trying to sell ice cream on a trike

and make it a nice, pleasant, almost holiday environment,

and if people are dropping litter in front of you,

it totally ruins the whole image

and it makes the whole area far less pleasant and attractive

for all of us to live in or work in.

It seems a pointless and selfish thing, really.

What's the Italian for "Hear, hear"?

The city council agrees too

and is on a mission to catch those who break the law.

Leicester's crack team from environmental services

are fighting back against the fly-tippers.

And today, we're following them at work.

Like many parts of the UK,

Leicester's not short of recycling facilities.

Recycling's not just right for the environment.

Rubbish deposited in recycling banks is worth good money when it's sold.

This helps offset the cost to the city's waste disposal,

so saving the taxpayer money.

I like the sound of that!

But look at this.

Some residents just don't get it, do they?

The rubbish is supposed to go IN the bin, not NEAR it.

Whereas stuff left in the right place saves money,

this cardboard just left at the side of the bin

is a worthless double whammy.

It gets spoiled, so it can't be recycled anyway,

plus it then costs the council money to clear it up.

Meet Nicole Powell and Charlotte Glover.

This formidable pair are city wardens

at the front line in the fight against fly-tipping.

No-one takes more pride in keeping the city tidy than Nicole.

I love the job. I love being able to be out in the community,

spreading the environmental issues and sharing them with everybody.

And no-nonsense Charlotte won't stand for any rubbish.

You don't dump your rubbish anywhere just 'cause you think the council will take it.

So it's just laziness, isn't it?

Remind you of anyone?

Why don't we call this bit of the programme

How Clean Is Your... Recycling Point?

This morning they're paying a routine visit

to a supermarket car park in the Hamilton area of the city

that's become a fly-tipping hot spot.

Every week huge quantities of rubbish are being dumped at this site,

most of it completely unsuitable for recycling.

The rubbish used to cover approximately...

-Most of it.

-15 metres?

It covered approximately all of the space that you see here.

Charlotte and Nicole's hard work

means that there is less rubbish here than in the past,

but they've still found this little lot today.

We can just walk away from it because we're not the cleaners,

but I can't walk away and leave that for other people

when there is room in the bins to do that.

I can't do it, no matter what.

That's the spirit, Nicole.

Something tells me I could eat my dinner off your kitchen floor.

Over the past few months, the girls have been amazed

at what the great British public will dump

in a supermarket car park.

And wait until you hear the list.

We've found computers, televisions, prescription drugs...

Raw turkey, whole...

-Did it have maggots in?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, it had maggots in.

A full set of expensive lady's underwear.

It could have gone to a nice home.

I don't think any of that lot belongs at a recycling point.

Do you?

But early one morning, Nicole and Charlotte came across something truly chilling.

That was found here, literally here, at this point here,

in a carrier bag in a black bag.

Inside the bag they discovered human remains.

There was two skulls, there was a ribcage...

and a pelvis.

This is incredible.

At first the ladies could scarcely believe their eyes.

We really thought they were plastic because some of them had been varnished.

So we weren't sure whether they were real or not.

It could have been a murder scene, anything.

The bones were handed over to the police.

They investigated and luckily concluded that nothing sinister was going on,

but they had been discarded by a medical student.

Phew!

It was shocking to see that they were just dumped in a carrier bag

at a recycling point.

Dumping human remains in a supermarket car park?

It doesn't get more disrespectful than that.

And the person responsible can have had no consideration

for our hard-working city wardens here.

This is a particularly popular recycling point.

For Nicole and Charlotte, today it's an essential tidy-up job,

and then a bit of detective work

in the hopes that they can work out who is dumping rubbish here illegally.

What we're going to do is look through the rubbish.

See what's in it, look for any evidence if need be,

and then we'll go from there.

It's a pretty nasty job. There could be anything in there.

We've got a lot of food waste in here,

which isn't recyclable at all.

Because food waste is often dumped here,

the hedges nearby are teeming with rats.

If one of the bags had been opened by the vermin,

with the weather as well,

that would have been washed all over the floor and...

Anything could have happened to it.

The rubbish that's been left here today

is completely unsuitable for recycling.

It's something that really winds Nicole up.

Leicester City Council provide a service of wheelie bins to every household.

There is no need for this.

And this clearly states that it's a recycling area.

There's signs everywhere.

It tells you on the bins what you can put in and what you can't.

So why would you leave that there for...

for us to clean up?

She's still smiling but you can hear the exasperation in Nicole's voice.

And I think we'd all feel the same if we had to go through this lot.

You need a strong stomach for this kind of work.

There's used sanitary towels in here,

there's Domestos,

so it's come from a bathroom bin.

It's not pleasant for anybody to go through.

Why didn't this person put this bin bag... well, in a bin?

But, in amongst all the bathroom rubbish, the girls find a crucial clue.

There's a bit of paper here, Nicole.

Do you want to photograph this? I've got a Mr Carn.

It looks like the detective work is finally paying off.

We found a little piece of paper with a name on it,

so there might be something further down in the bag with an address.

So we'll just take that and put it in an evidence bag.

So it's not tampered with.

If we do find any address so that we're able to approach this person,

because there might be a household...

Oh, lovely. We've got some evidence.

We just found some more evidence. It's for Mr Carn, with an address.

-So that's the lucky...

-Do you want to put it near that bag?

That's the lucky strike.

But unlucky for Mr Carn, by the looks of things.

I do think people don't expect we go to such lengths to find pieces of evidence like this,

especially in a big bag full of food waste like this.

So that's the icing on the cake, that is.

The city wardens have powers to carry out a formal interview under caution.

We'll be calling him in...

for a PACE interview

and ask his reason for doing this,

and an explanation.

But there's no explanation.

What I love about Nicole

is that no matter how many times she's had to clean up,

she's still outraged at every new bit of rubbish.

And quite right, too.

People need to realise they can't just dump stuff anywhere they like.

When we invite them in, most people act quite shocked they're being asked.

When they don't realise they've done anything wrong,

they're very surprised at why they've been called in to have an interview.

Nicole and Charlotte successfully track down Mr Carn.

His daughter admitted dumping the rubbish at the recycling point.

They were issued with a fixed penalty notice of £80,

making it one very expensive black bag.

We have to put a sticker on the bag that we found the evidence on.

So we've put it on this bag here.

This just informs the public

that people are going through people's rubbish if they just leave it.

Not just people, Charlotte.

A dedicated couple of women

who do it because they genuinely care about keeping their neighbourhood clean.

How clean is your recycling point?

Very!

Something smells a bit whiffy.

I think it's one of the worst things you can get on your feet.

We all hate, hate, hate it.

I have trod in dog poo.

Mind where you step!

Not impressed actually, no.

As a responsible dog owner, I think it should be cleaned up straightaway.

Erm, I think they should pick it up and put it in the bin

because people might tread in it.

Ugh. But she has got the right idea.

It is rife.

On the way to school, it's on the bottom of scooters and pushchairs.

You're lucky not to tread in it.

We've even encountered it where somebody's left it and covered it over with leaves,

so you don't see it until you go through it with a pushchair.

They're all talking.

Dog mess.

It's revolting.

You wouldn't want a fly going on it and then going over to your food.

I just don't like it like that.

All right, all right, enough now.

We may be a nation of dog lovers,

but we can't stick the mess they leave behind.

And boy, do they leave a mess!

Disgusting.

There are around 6.8 million dogs in the UK,

-and, as you'd imagine, that's an awful lot of...

-HE SNIFFS

actually, about 900 tons of the stuff each and every day.

Now, most dog owners are smart pups when it comes to cleaning up after their canine friend.

Yet others are downright dirty dogs and leave a mess wherever they go.

Pub landlord Richard Scott is driven to despair by the mess.

Because we've got quite a large open space,

people tend to think they can just walk their dogs across our land

and just let them foul without cleaning it up.

There, there, there...

We do have rather a lot of campers with children

and they are not too chuffed to find large piles of dog mess...

It's there, there, there...

..in the field where they're camping.

This is all recent, within the last couple of days.

Once one dog has left a mess,

other dogs will come along and find the scent

and think it's OK to leave their own.

It looks like Richard is left with a load of unhappy campers

and a very dirty lawn.

It's obscene. Everybody should be made to clean up after their animals.

It may seem trivial, but dog dirt is a menace and also dangerous.

It's just that it's foul. It smells revolting.

It's dangerous as well. It can make them go blind.

In fact, a single gramme of dog waste

can contain 23 million faecal coliform bacteria.

They cause cramps, diarrhoea,

intestinal illness, serious kidney disorders

and blindness, especially in children.

It also costs councils, which means you and me, dog owner or not,

millions of pounds a year to clean up.

Across the country, councils are trying all sorts of schemes

to persuade people to scoop their poop.

In Doncaster, tidy pet owners get the chance to win a hamper of doggy goodies

if spotted cleaning up after their pooch.

-Mrs Mahon?

-Yeah?

-You're the winner of our responsible dog owner competition this month.

Up.

Tidy.

Redditch and Bromsgrove Council, on the other hand,

are going for a very different tactic.

The council have launched the Mucky Pup campaign.

We've just got to make sure we've all got our dog vests on as our patrol vests.

For three weeks environmental officers Anna and Peter are hitting the streets

to try and persuade the public to clean up after their dogs and put the waste in the bin.

We'll also put up signs at the entrance to the park about our dog fouling campaign

so we get maximum visibility out of this.

The aim for today is to talk to as many people as possible,

engage with them about dog fouling.

We're just trying to encourage people, in a nice way, to pick up after their animals.

If we come into contact with dog owners,

we give them little freebie doggy bones that have dog poo bags in there.

We'd like to give you one of our little doggy bones with 20 little poo bags in there.

You can hang them on the belt as well.

So that's quite a useful gift to give out.

It's not at all a stick thing. It's a carrot thing that we're trying to get across today.

It's not an enforcement thing at all.

The council are going all out with the advertising campaign,

even advertising on the side of council trucks.

That's our livery. It's good, isn't it? I really like that.

We've managed to pool our refuse freighters with the "Mucky pup? Clean it up" livery

just to try and get as many people to see what we've got out and around our district.

It gets people talking. That's all it's all about.

"Mucky pup? Clean it up." I like it.

And you'll like this even more.

They've got a pretty unique tool of persuasion -

a can of orange spray paint.

-I'll pass those to you, Pete.

-Thank you very much.

Don't panic. Don't call the RSPCA.

They're not spray-painting dogs that foul, or tagging the owners.

Nope, instead they're spray-painting dog poop.

So, why on earth are they making it orange?

No, no, it's not what you call modern art.

It raises awareness so people can actually see it when they walk along the road.

It also stops people treading in it.

We've had quite a few people say to us,

"I've already trodden in that" because it is sprayed bright orange.

-Anybody else want a go?

-Me!

OK, come on, then, have a spray.

It's really good what the council are doing

so people don't tread in the dog poo.

So it's bright orange, and you're just aware it's doggy poo.

Also, where you've got dog walkers, they tend to stick to the same routes.

They will go down the same route every day

and their dog will do their business at the same point generally every day.

So if we're marking it, they'll say, "Someone's recognised this.

"Somebody's noticed that my dog's fouled there."

Maybe it will subconsciously make them not do it or make them pick it up.

It's unique, I'm going to give them that.

We'll be back on pooch patrol later

to find out whether the orange paint

can turn the locals from mucky pups to prize-winning pooches.

Another one there, Anna.

Time now to sit back, pull out your magnifying glass,

put on your deerstalker

and enjoy detective work worthy of the great Sherlock Holmes himself.

A case solved using logical reasoning and good old-fashioned deduction.

But we are a long way from 221B Baker Street.

We're in Preston, England's newest city,

where one autumn evening a dastardly crime was committed.

Meet supersleuth and environment enforcer Paul Cookson.

This is an incident we dealt with in October 2010.

It occurred on the car park at Moor Park.

This is the scene of the crime,

Moor Park, the lungs of this former mill town.

It was reported by the park ranger

who tended the car park as in his normal rounds.

Now, we are quite used to having to come onto the car park to pick up light littering.

It's a very popular spot throughout the day and the evening for people to park.

We find a lot of people come at night eating takeaway food and just leave it lying around.

So the park ranger is always coming on to do some tidying up.

But this one night, something was lying in wait for the ranger.

Something big.

Something threatening.

Something all filth-fighters dread -

a fly tip.

This is quite a disgusting offence.

This guy didn't care what he did. He just wanted to get rid of this waste.

Paul went into detective mode and headed straight to the scene.

I'm annoyed at this guy. I'm determined to find out where this material came from

and somebody should face legal action for dumping it.

Paul and his team had to get to work, clean this mess up and find the culprit.

He studies the dump and, in true Sherlock Holmes style,

spots an immediate clue.

Clue: dumped in one load.

Deduction: it could only have come from a large truck.

He reversed his lorry up to the edge of the car park,

lifted up the rear tail

and allowed the entire load to slide off onto the floor.

But there was another crucial clue in the mud.

We can just about see some lines on the mud

which correspond to the tracks of a flat-back truck.

The tyre marks were an immediate giveaway.

Our sleuth was on the right tracks.

We're looking at the tyre tracks in the mud.

Obviously a commercial vehicle was used to deposit the waste.

Clever.

The tyre track size suggests a large vehicle.

It must be a commercial truck.

Deduction: could this be someone employed to remove the waste?

They've obviously picked up a load of household waste.

Here we see bathroom furniture.

We've got a toilet cistern, toilet base, a bath and a sink amongst it.

So not only are we looking at a house clearance of general bric-a-brac.

We're looking at somewhere where they've done refurbishment work at a bathroom.

And we're quite clear on the original colour of the bathroom.

Mmm! A lovely mustard. I can tell why they've thrown it out.

But I am disgusted about how they've thrown it out.

Paul was well into his detective stride,

piecing together clue after clue.

And lucky for him his arch-nemesis had left plenty to find.

Over here you can see we've got lots of bits of paper evidence.

From an enforcement point of view, this is a godsend to us.

It looks like we're going to get evidence that might lead us to the offender.

Oh, dear. A schoolboy error.

This is prescription medicine

and it still has the label on from the pharmacy.

And fortunately for us, it has the address on of the patient.

That's a significant clue to us.

We now have a link to a particular house in the Preston area

where this waste may have come from.

Gotcha!

This clearly was the job of an amateur.

Before you could say "The Hound of the Baskervilles"

Paul was round at the house in question.

At the rear of the address, I find a bath lying on the floor.

The first thing I notice is that the colour of the bath,

as you can see from the edge,

matches the bathroom suite that we found at Moor Park.

Elementary, my dear viewer.

I think we'll call this case A Study In Mustard.

Case closed? Not quite.

So, following on that, I go and speak to the owner of the house.

He recently purchased the property

and is doing some refurbishment work,

and he had employed somebody to take the waste away recently.

Paul had been spot on. It was the hired help all along.

The culprit was summoned to explain himself.

I'll let Paul take up the story.

He was quite happy to tell us who that person was

and indeed arranged for the young man to come back to the property

to explain himself.

When the young man arrived, he was a bit sheepish

because he suddenly realised he might be in a little bit of trouble.

A little bit of trouble?

If found guilty, he could be fined up to 50 grand

or sent down for up to 12 months.

The offender was a young gentleman

who worked for a local housing association

and he had access to a company flat-back truck.

He was approached by a man who was doing some building work

to see whether he could remove some waste from the house and dispose of it legally.

He was paid for that service

and essentially used the firm's vehicle without permission.

Ah! So doing a job on the side, eh?

The housing association have an arrangement with Preston City Council

to use our transfer yard to dispose of their waste.

Crafty!

It was here that our scoundrel was planning to dump the waste.

But, as in all good crime stories, there was a hitch.

But unfortunately he chose to do it at the weekend.

But he'd never worked the weekend so he didn't know the yard was closed at the weekend.

Ouch!

So when he arrived at the yard the gates were shut,

and that's when the panic set in,

because he's now got a lorry full of rubbish

and nowhere to dump it.

And just hours until the van had to be back.

That's why he ended up here.

So the vehicle will have reversed into this spot,

he lifted up the tail of the vehicle and just allowed all the waste to spill out onto this area.

So it's a full flat-back load just literally dumped in one go

right on the car park.

The young man confessed everything, and his one crime cost him dear.

Because he'd taken the firm's vehicle without permission,

he lost his job.

He was put before the magistrates who, fortunately for him, were very lenient,

put him on a community service order,

but also ordered him to pay the full legal costs

and the clean-up costs of this little action.

What a heavy price to pay for a bit on the side.

Over in Leicester, different location but same old problem.

You guessed it - fly-tipping.

Over the past few months, the council has focused on

stopping waste ending up on the streets in the first place.

It's people being lazy. And it's bad for the environment.

I think fly-tippers ought to be prosecuted.

Fine them. Your pocket hurts, doesn't it?

The city wardens are out in force

with the power to nobble filthy litter louts

with £80 fixed penalty notices.

Steve Quick is the manager of the council's environmental crime team

and passionate about keeping Leicester tidy.

Today he's at a tip-off about a pile of old tyres

that's been left on a country road on the edge of the city.

He is straight in the car and looks like he's turned on his internal fly-tipping radar,

and it's about to go off.

Yeah, my job's great fun, and it's also very useful.

You've got that feeling that you're helping the community.

Oh... Dearie me. That's new.

A little deposit across the road there.

I love this. Steve hasn't even made it to the dumped tyres,

but he can't help himself.

Some filthy rotter obviously thinks an old mattress

is just what the Leicester countryside needs.

But Steve's not the kind of man to drive on by.

I can't understand this.

All they've got to do is telephone, book it in, and we'd come and take this away.

Instead, they've put it on a vehicle, driven it up here

and dumped it at the side of the road.

We've now got to get a crew up here to take it away,

all of which is costing the taxpayer money to do that.

Leicester City Council spent £312,000 last year

clearing up mess like this.

Shocking.

On the offside on the verge there's a mattress and odd bits of furniture.

But with no clues today as to who left this junk,

all Steve can do is get the rubbish cleared as quickly as possible.

This is just beyond my comprehension. It really is.

Nope, we don't understand it either, Steve.

City warden Charlotte wants to feel proud of her patch of Leicester.

This afternoon she's targeting an area near the Netherhall shops.

This whole district was cleared of graffiti last week.

But just look at this. It's already back.

And that means someone's time and money to get rid of it yet again.

If it's offensive, the council will clean up the graffiti free of charge.

Because it's not offensive, they may ask the people who own the building to pay them an amount.

It's a big cost as well. It's not cheap.

All the chemicals they have to use, it's not a cheap thing.

So it's 8:11.

It's a massive blight on the local community.

And it's not the only thing in Charlotte's sights.

Get that pen and pad out again.

We found another fly tip round the back of the Netherhall shops.

It may have come from one of the shops itself as it's just had a refit.

So I'll go and speak to them and see if they know anything about it.

If they have, they'll then have the responsibility of cleaning it up.

If this kind of thing came from someone's house, the council would collect it.

But the rules are different for commercial waste,

and Charlotte likes people who stick to the rules.

Every business has to dispose of their waste correctly.

They have to pass their waste on to a licensed waste carrier,

and failing to do that results in a £300 fixed penalty notice.

So it's really important that these businesses get a carrier in place.

They are licensed, and that helps reduce a lot of the fly-tipping that we have.

This cafe opened to the public just a few weeks ago.

When Charlotte first visited the cafe,

the owner couldn't prove the rubbish was being collected by an appropriate contractor.

Today she's back for a spot check,

hopeful that this time the paperwork's in order.

-I've come to see your duty of care.

-OK.

Have you got your contract on site?

Looks like the owner's got it all sorted since Charlotte's last visit.

Just what she likes to hear.

I've got the documents here.

-Lovely. If I can just take some of that information down.

-Sure.

Out with that trusty pen and pad again.

They've had one collection.

All right. OK.

Also, when I was doing my patrols, I noticed out the back behind your blue gates

a bit of fly-tipping.

-Is that from the refurb?

-No.

-Or was it already there?

We had a skip put up there, and I believe that stuff was left outside.

-So it didn't go in the skip?

-No, it's not part of my...

It's not part of yours. That's all right. OK.

Also, the graffiti on your wall.

-That's new.

-That is new, yeah.

-Absolutely.

None of the rubbish behind the shops came from here,

and the owner's got most of the required paperwork.

But Charlotte's a stickler for detail

and arranges to come back once the rest of the documents have arrived.

-You've got the number?

-Yes, I have.

-When that comes in, call us and I can get the rest of the details.

-No problem. Thank you very much.

On the outskirts of the city, Steve is still playing hunt the tyres.

One thing I think we all know -

he's not going to give up until he's tracked them down.

No two cases are the same. No two days are the same.

Some you win, some you lose,

but we keep banging away.

And we've got another load here.

I don't believe it.

This lane unfortunately is a bit of a hot spot for us.

We're less than a minute's drive from the last fly tip

and already super Steve has spotted another pile of rubbish.

Oh. That's interesting.

What's he spotted?

That looks like the rest of the wardrobe

that was further back down there with the mattress.

And also a car part.

Don't suppose there's a registration number on that car fender. That'd be good.

You've got me all excited now, Steve. So?

No. That would have been a good lead if that were still there.

We could have traced the vehicle it came off and asked some questions.

If Steve can build up a picture of how the rubbish got here,

he might get some clues about who dumped it.

Whether...

Whether somebody's come up here twice with a smaller vehicle

or whether they've stopped and dropped off some

and then dropped off another...

But I don't see why they'd do that.

I think we're probably looking at a fairly small vehicle.

That tells Steve this lot was probably dumped by a lazy individual

rather than by someone running an illegal waste disposal business.

Certainly nothing in there is going to give us a lead.

I'll move on to the tyres.

Over the past few months the council has focused

on stopping waste ending up on the streets in the first place.

They're particularly keen to spruce up Leicester's Golden Mile,

so called because it's a centre for Asian jewellery.

So it's this one as well, isn't it?

Nicole, Charlotte and colleague Mo are out checking

whether businesses have done as they were told a few weeks ago

and are disposing of their waste properly.

-Had any luck getting a contractor?

-Yeah. We are going through the paperwork at the moment.

If you come down next time in a week or so,

we'll have the bin bags and the contracts in our hand.

We will be coming back on 22 August.

From the sounds of things, they'll be more than welcome.

-OK?

-All right. Thank you.

Just to keep the city clean and nice and tidy,

they are doing their job.

A very good job, to be honest.

I think it's our duty as citizens as well to keep the city clean.

But despite the wardens' previous visits,

some of the businesses haven't yet even made contact with a waste carrier.

-Look in the Yellow Pages to find an independent company to pick up your rubbish.

-OK.

-Oh, my goodness.

If it's not done by 22 August, we will be giving you legal notice.

There's no way for businesses to get round this if they want to stay within the law.

But some businesses think it's all a bit jobsworth,

given the amount of waste they produce.

Nicole and Mo want to get businesses to work together

to arrange joint collections of their rubbish and save on costs.

-Does a company collect your rubbish at the moment?

-No. We hardly get any rubbish coming in.

-Everything we get, we get in a carrier bag with a handle.

-Hmm.

This shop sells clothing, and the owner just doesn't feel

he produces enough waste to need someone to take it away.

A small business like mine...

I hardly produce any litter or any waste.

I don't think I need one, to be honest with you.

Every business has to have a duty of care contract

and have a registered waste carrier collect your rubbish.

So even if it's one bag every two weeks or every month,

you still have to have a company come and collect that one bag.

Firm but fair, that's the approach.

But the wardens are happy to consider ways to reduce the cost.

They are responding. Like the jewellers, they don't have a lot of wastage.

So there's 18 jewellers along here,

and they're going to club together and get one contract in place.

It really is good. It's very positive at the moment.

Back out on the open road with super Steve,

he's finally found the tyres that were reported to him.

That's a relief!

It costs up to £3 each to dispose of these tyres legitimately.

It looks as though someone here has saved themselves a pretty penny

and left someone else to pick up the tab.

The cost just of clearing up gets borne by the occupiers of the land.

These tyres here, because they're on the highway,

the council has to clear it up, so the taxpayer's bearing the cost.

Steve prosecutes around ten people a year for fly-tipping

and plenty more get fixed penalty notices, cautions and warnings.

This dedicated man really cares about his job

and has a pretty low opinion

of the people who dump rubbish all over his precious city.

They're just animals. They don't care about the world they live in

or their fellow citizens.

In other words, Steve, they're filthy, rotten scoundrels.

Right. Spray paint at the ready, let's hit the park.

Don't worry, I'm not suggesting we all take up graffiti.

It's time to join environmental officers Anna and Peter again

on a unique mission to spray dog poo orange.

Another one there, Anna.

We're heading off to Sanders Park, the biggest park in Bromsgrove.

It's a really good recreation ground.

There's a bandstand, they have events on, there's a kiddies' skate park, a play area.

It's a really popular recreation destination in Bromsgrove.

We went there last week

and spoke to about 50 people with dogs, without dogs,

talked about our campaign and got some really positive feedback.

So hopefully this week we'll see lots more people.

-See an improvement.

-See an improvement, hopefully.

The trouble is, in parks like this,

you only need one dog owner a day

who doesn't clean up after their pet

and very quickly you've got a big problem.

But even the most stubborn owner must notice these things

on their daily walking route.

These are a pair of our banners with the same imagery on there.

With the "Mucky pup? Clean it up".

So again, it's all about raising awareness.

Operation Mucky Pup is underway.

Watch out, you dirty dogs!

In some places it's so bad, even our cameraman nearly stood in it.

Watch your step, pal.

Whilst they surprise the local dog walkers with luminous orange lumps,

they're also meeting the community.

What do they make of the council's latest weapon against the poopers?

I think it's a good idea,

because there's just a few who don't pick up and don't want to.

I think it's really good what the council's doing to raise awareness.

The bright spray paint, the kids are definitely into it.

-Anybody else? ANNA:

-Excellent.

OK. Let's go look for the rest. Come on, find the rest.

-This is fabulous.

-Let's have a look.

-This is great, getting people doing our job for us!

-This is teamwork.

And what about local pub landlord Richard?

Anybody out walking their dog that has a regular route

will obviously notice these bright orange markings.

Hopefully they will be shamed into either cleaning up after their dog

or making sure their dog doesn't leave the mess in the first place.

Everyone's very impressed. But does it really work?

It's exactly what I hoped it would do in terms of raising awareness.

It's become a debate, and people are having a laugh at it as well.

It's doing exactly what I wanted it to do.

Have you seen them spraying the poo orange?

Oh, is that what that is? I've seen the orange.

That's what I hope is... Oh, here we go.

We are seeing a decrease

in the amount of dog fouling we're finding week to week.

What a scoop!

And, in a remarkable turn of events,

it seems like the campaign has even caused some naughty poopers

to go back to the scene of the crime.

We came round this area last week. We sprayed that.

Now the poo's gone, so someone's noticed it and picked it up.

So that's quite an achievement, I think.

Someone's cleaned up after themselves.

Maybe it was the person who did it, maybe it wasn't, but it's gone.

That's quite positive.

Whoever's dog left this mess has since thought again.

They've sneaked back and scooped their poop.

A win for the council.

It's a cheeky campaign, but it doesn't end there.

The team also go knocking on doors,

taking their Mucky Pup postcards with them.

The great thing about these campaigns is that it's not just about dog poo.

It's about everyone taking pride in where they live.

'I think it's an absolutely fabulous campaign.'

We need to be out here on the street.

The things that upset customers most are unclean streets,

dog poo, obviously included in that,

and litter.

I work on the principle that cleaner streets are crime-free streets.

Less grime, less crime.

And it seems to be working.

Less grime, less crime. I like that.

So, after a long day in the park, how many poops have they sprayed?

We've sprayed about 22 fresh dog poos,

-put up two or three new signs.

-Fabulous. Yeah.

And you've posted cards to all these houses down here.

So hopefully we've got the message out quite well today,

all in a couple of hours' work.

Another victory in the fight

against the thing that we all hate the most - the dreaded dog doo.

This mucky mess is cluttering our streets and wrecking our countryside.

But our environment enforcers are working day and night

to make Britain a cleaner place to live.

Join us next time,

when we'll be chasing down more filthy, rotten scoundrels.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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