Episode 2 Filthy Rotten Scoundrels

Every day, a war is being waged across Britain to clean up our towns and countryside.

It's where I walk and where I live, and I don't want it to look a mess.

The people who's doing this should definitely be heavily fined.

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

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

To clear this area would be a big job.

When I see people fly-tipping or even just littering,

throwing a crisp packet on the floor, it makes me angry that people have so little respect.

..we're on the front line of the clear-up and the fight-back,

with the dedicated teams tracking down the rogues

and putting the Great back into Britain.

It may harm your defence if you fail to mention, when questioned,

something you later rely on in court.

On today's programme, the voice from above

that shames the litter louts into clearing up after themselves.

"The gentleman in the blue top with the white T-shirt on,

could you please pick up the litter you've just dropped?"

And we're doing the rounds with a man whose dedication

to clearing up his neighbourhood is an inspiration to us all.

If I can pick this stuff up,

and it's making the area a lot better to drive round and walk round,

then, I suppose, I should take a bit of pride in that, really.

Welcome to the dirty world of Filthy Rotten Scoundrels.

Now, whose heart doesn't lift at sights like these?

Beautiful Britain! But I've got a shocking fact for you.

Someone fly-tips in England every 30 seconds.

But local councils like Doncaster are fighting back.

They've drafted in neighbourhood-response teams

whose regular work is patrolling for antisocial behaviour,

to hunt for equally antisocial lawbreakers

who like to dump rubbish.

It's a 24-hour job, and seasoned team members Louise and Gerald

are determined they're going to get results.

We're on the streets seven nights a week.

We're rock-and-rolling four on, four off,

from seven o'clock at night till six in the morning,

and we're out looking for fly-tipping hot spots tonight.

We're going to one quite close to here

that's called the Balk. It's a farmer's land,

but he's been plagued by fly-tipping for months now.

On the face of it, the Balk is just a peaceful bridleway running across farmland.

But the incessant fly-tipping is an ongoing nightmare

for locals like farmer's wife Jackie Dusi.

I'm absolutely fed up of going out of the end of my drive down there

and knowing that just 200 or 300 yards down the lane,

there's going to be household rubbish dumped,

old furniture, garden stuff, house clearances,

and it just incenses me, and I don't want to have to live in that area.

That's why I'm so passionate about catching these dumpers,

and bringing them to book, getting them sorted out.

Jackie is a one-woman surveillance crack squad,

and fly-tippers should be afraid - very afraid.

'It's at this time of night that I'm particularly vigilant.'

They'll start coming up the lane, doing the fly-tipping.

So I'm out and about watering my plants and keeping an eye on what's going off,

and making sure that whoever goes down that lane,

I've clocked 'em, and if they're suspicious, I'm down there

either in the truck, or if the truck's not available, on my bike,

with my trusty stick and my notebook and my mobile-phone camera.

She's my kind of woman, and she's Louise and Gerald's kind, too,

as dedicated to keeping the Balk clear as they are.

But the filthy rotters just love a secluded spot

for their dirty deeds, so there's a horrible inevitability

about visiting the Balk.

'It's been really bad lately.'

We've got some new stuff. This is new,

so we're going to have to have a look through this.

This wasn't here the last time we come up.

It's a shocking mess. Just look at it!

There's builders' rubble mixed with household waste.

It's probably more than one dump.

Now their number-one priority is to find some clues

to who this rubbish belongs to in and amongst this mound of muck.

We'll search through it to see if we can find any evidence -

you know, letters, cards, anything with names and addresses on it.

Anything they find will be passed on

to the council's environmental-crime team for investigation.

What a waste of precious council resources, though!

It's absolutely ridiculous. It costs the council thousands of pounds

to clear this up. It's money they could well spend on other areas,

but they have to spend it on fly-tipping.

There's plenty of sites to dump waste,

but they do it in a country lane like this and get rid of it that way,

which is astonishing at times.

You're telling me! But maybe this time,

if they can unearth some vital leads, there'll be some payback.

That's a good piece of evidence for this.

It's an unopened piece of mail

that clearly shows a name and address,

which is just down the road.

This address might lead them to the owner of the rubbish.

From there they'll hope to find out who dumped it.

So what we'll do is, we'll complete a blue book to the FLAG team...

That's the fly-tipping, litter and abandoned-vehicles team to you and me.

..to report the fly-tipping, and we can attach this as evidence,

so that hopefully somebody can be prosecuted.

It's good when we can get evidence like this,

so we can at least try and identify some of the people

who are tipping in this area. It does have a big impact on communities.

Luckily, in this case it looks like the evidence is mounting.

Bingo! It's the same address as the bill they've already found.

And there's another form of waste in this dump

which is also causing havoc. Gerald's trained eye

means he's immediately got a good idea what's been going on.

Cable theft in Doncaster is really prevalent.

They're coming to places like this and burning the copper out of it.

This is what you've got here. This is all cable residue.

This is really bad in Doncaster at the moment.

This mess of cable is the result of a very dangerous criminal trend -

the theft of miles of signal and points cabling

from Britain's railways, nicked to get to the copper inside.

It's causing millions of pounds' worth of damage

to the rail network, and is a danger to the public

and the idiots who perpetrate the crime.

But the rewards are that great. The price of copper is sky high.

I mean, for a ton of copper, it's about £6,000.

So, I mean, the rewards are very good,

and that's why it's happening all the time.

When Gerald comes across evidence like this,

he immediately alerts British Transport Police.

They'll check what cable they've burned, cos they can identify it

even after it's been burned. They'll be arrested for it.

The fallout for the environment is immense.

I mean, the fumes off that are absolutely horrendous.

As you can see, you're right in the middle of the country.

You've got horses right next to it, you know what I mean?

Disgusting! With several clues found,

it's time for this friendly looking gizmo to spring to life.

We try and get a good shot of the fly-tipping,

and then we can use that as CCTV footage,

or we can take stills off that,

just to support the evidence that we've found today.

Finally, it's important that the rubbish is cleared

before more filthy rotten scoundrels add to the unpleasant pile.

Gerald knows only too well that litter attracts litter.

If people see it's been cleared, they'll be thinking twice.

"We might get caught tipping here." If it's never cleared away,

they'll continue to tip here cos they'll think it's easy to do, so they'll get away with it.

But hopefully we'll catch them one day.

Coming up, while Louise and Gerald finish off the official business,

the unofficial cavalry is riding out.

They come down here cos they think it's quite isolated,

and nobody's going to see them putting the rubbish out.

But they haven't accounted for me, Inch High Private Eye,

who don't miss anything, in my house there.

Well, from Inch High Private Eye to a one-man litter Terminator.

Let me introduce you to Stuart McDonald,

a lovely guy who dedicates every day to cleaning up the mess

some filthy rotten scoundrels see fit to leave behind.

This is North Kesteven in Lincolnshire,

and Stuart works for the council here.

His job is to clear up after the scoundrels

who just dump their rubbish anywhere they see fit.

And he's a busy man!

This area alone has between 70 and 100 incidents of fly-tipping

every single month.

I don't think there's any need for it at all.

There's lots of landfill sites. They can take them there free of charge,

but for some reason they seem to think that it's better

to tip it down a country lane.

I haven't got a very high opinion of them, really.

Neither do we, Stuart, believe me.

Every day Stuart has a list of places

where a new fly tip has been reported,

each one evidence of a thoughtless, selfish rogue.

He rolls up his sleeves and tidies up after them -

nothing fancy, just pure hard graft.

The public has phoned in

saying there's some brick rubble been dropped off

down a pathway, I think it is.

It might be something we can pick up now. If there's a lot of it,

it might need a JCB or a wheelbarrow.

It looks like an old toilet system or sinks or something, broke up.

Seems like someone's thrown everything out with the bathwater,

and they couldn't be bothered to take these ceramics

and bits of bathroom rubbish to the landfill site

just a short drive away. Now it's Stuart's job

to try and shift this lot onto the lorry, all by himself.

I knew it'd do that.

Clearly it's going to be that kind of day.

Ah, some days it does tend to make you a little bit cross,

cos I can't see there's any need for it,

but try not to think of it too much, or you'd be angry all day every day.

And he's not one to cut corners, old Stuart.

Ever the perfectionist, he's out with the old dustpan and brush,

any bin man's best friend. Good man, Stuart!

It's exhausting work, but there's no time for Stuart to recover.

He's straight onto job number two.

Let's hope this is an easier one.

What have we got here? A big telly for a start,

some plant pots...

Looks like an old rug of some sort.

Football, Manchester United.

Perhaps someone's doing up their front room.

Anything you fancy taking back to your place, Stuart?

I've never taken anything home from this job,

because, one, you're not supposed to take it home,

and another, there's nothing you'd really want,

the stuff we pick up. HE LAUGHS

Certainly wouldn't want that!

More of a Sleaford Town fan, eh?

Well, that's blown it. It really isn't Stuart's day.

The screen's gone. That's a good old thickness, that is. Crikey!

Oh, but look at that! At least the filthy fly-tippers

have left a hoover for you, Stuart. That could come in handy!

No? Well, at least the old dustpan and brush are still reliable.

Another one done.

And it's back on the lorry to head off for the next tip for Stuart.

No rest for the wicked here!

I could not stand stopping in one place all the time,

being stuck in an office. You get out in the lorry,

and you're going round the countryside.

OK, it's not always a very nice job, some of the stuff you're picking up.

OK, you're in horrible weather sometimes,

if it's raining or snowing. You get a bit mucky

and you get stung now and again by the odd bee or the odd wasp,

but, you know,

in general, it's better than being stuck in an office or a factory.

Life on the open road, eh? Sounds good to me!

Shame Stuart's got so many stops to get in, all in one day.

I think it could be these sheds... Oh, I'm right.

I was just going to say I think it's these sheds,

cos this is one of the favourite spots.

They tend to tip down this lane.

Will you look at that? How considerate!

About time our Stuart had a little sit-down.

What we've got here, we've got a couple of settees

and some bits of boarding, by the look of it.

I don't know whether it's an old piece of a shed. I don't know what it is.

I think this might be a common spot because you can get off the road

a fair bit here, and sort of hide a little bit

behind the side of these buildings.

And hopefully... And there's not too much traffic down this road,

so hopefully the people who tip it will think they're not going to be spotted.

Can I just point out that this is full-on, backbreaking work for Stuart?

Did whoever dumped this think about who'd have to clear it all up?

It's left to Stuart to load these sofas on to the van himself.

I salute you, mate.

The reason people would throw a sofa, I think, like this,

would be they've just purchased a new one,

and instead of getting someone to take it to a landfill site,

they've, er...

decided to, er...tip it in the countryside.

"Sofa", not so good, then, Stuart. Sorry. I couldn't resist that one.

But it's really not funny. Sofas are heavy and hard to lift,

and Stuart's still only on job two of a long day.

We'll be back with him later, when he shows he's got brains as well as brawn.

Hmm, interesting! I've got a picture of somebody,

and a name and address.

Now, a treat for you gadget fans.

Ever had the feeling someone's watching you?

Well, if you've been hanging around in Middlesbrough town centre,

chances are someone is.

It's not exactly Big Brother,

but Middlesbrough was the first place in the UK

to introduce multiple CCTV cameras in the '90s,

and now they're staffed 24/7, 365 days a year.

And we're not only talking about your common-or-garden CCTV here.

The 21 cameras that monitor Middlesbrough's night spots

have all been fitted with speakers

so that this kind of thing can happen.

Will the gentleman leaving the Crown please pick up the litter he's just dropped?

It's a high-tech answer to Middlesbrough's litter problem.

It's a good idea, because obviously it's letting people know

there is people watching them.

CCTV cameras are a good idea in the towns, and it's always good.

It helps people feel safe and secure.

I was actually with a group of people

when the first sound came out of the Tannoy system,

and it said, "Would you mind picking that litter up?"

and everyone was looking to see where this voice was coming from,

and this young kid had picked the paper up and put it in the bin!

Security-and-surveillance manager Jack Bonnar

reckons the speaker-cameras have made all the difference,

and we're about to show you a selection of incidents

from the past few months.

The operator in the control room witnesses the offence

and then speaks directly to the person itself.

Would the young man mind picking the balloon up, please?

Hang on. I didn't even see that!

Clearly nothing gets past our eagle-eyed control-room operator.

Can we have a rewind, please?

The young man standing in the middle is about to flick a balloon

onto the floor.

Nobody likes to be pointed out. Nobody likes to be picked up,

and it's a bit of a shock, a surprise to them.

To the young man climbing now, would you mind picking the balloon up

that you've just thrown away?

And this then changes the perception of,

"Well, yes, why have I done it?"

And usually... 90 to 95 percent of the time,

they comply with our wishes.

Well done, lad. Best you do the right thing.

And how great is this? Now they're all tidying up!

This really does work.

Thank you very much.

Staff in the CCTV control room are also in radio contact

with enforcement officers on the ground,

Phil Armitage and Lee Hooker.

Tonight, it seems all kinds of responsible behaviour

have gone up in a big old puff of smoke.

Here, this man in a black T-shirt

is busy talking to our enforcement officer, Lee,

and yet he throws his cigarette butt on the floor

right there and then.

What a cheeky chap! Time for another action replay.

Just watch his right hand as he flicks his butt onto the floor.

Well, something's tickled him,

but maybe an £80 fine will wipe the smile off his face.

Oh, dear! Lee hasn't spotted the offence.

Just as well the control-room operator has his eyes peeled.

These guys pick up the smallest misdemeanour

without the aid of our action replays

or me rabbiting on about what's about to happen.

It's impressive stuff!

-Yeah, CP 30. Go ahead.

-"Yeah, this is CCTV."

Luckily the operator can radio through straight away

and let the officers know about the offence they've missed.

What, one of the chaps we spoke to?

That lad you were talking to. He's threw his fag on the floor.

They direct Lee to the friendly faced fag-thrower

in a nearby night club.

Jack, Lee's just having a word with the chap now.

Oh, no! The walk of shame.

Hiya!

Just look at those shoulders!

It's like the weight of the world is on them.

It's not that bad, mate! Just pick it up and put it in the bin.

Yeah. As I said, all you got to do is put it in the...

Thank you.

Yeah. Thank the gentleman very much for carrying that out.

LAUGHTER

Yeah, roger that, Jack. I think Lee's just done the same,

and he's just shook my hand and said sorry as he's gone past.

And it isn't just those who are out getting slightly sozzled

who seem to lose the ability to put things in the bin.

A licensed taxi driver is having a break

in the back of a colleague's car.

Nothing wrong in that. It's a long night.

But what's he doing? Chucking your dinner box out the door

has never been part of any Highway Code that I can remember.

Luckily the control room can see where the offender works,

and his registration plate.

In the end, he admitted on two separate offences

and paid £160 in fines.

I expect he'll be needing a few good fares

to make up for that. Taxi!

We'll be back on the town in Middlesbrough again later,

when Jack's team suddenly spot a sinister drop-off.

He's just put something down there, hasn't he?

We're back on patrol with Jackie Dusi.

It's people like this who are putting the Great back into Britain.

She's certainly fed up to the back teeth of fly-tippers,

and isn't afraid to show it.

Right.

We're now approaching the area where most of the dumping occurs.

This is Jackie's patch,

and woe betide anyone who thinks they can outwit her.

They belt down here all hours of day and night.

Last night at one o'clock I saw a van coming down.

Now, if I'm in the house, I tend to follow them down.

I've got an incident book which I write things in,

and report it to the council. In fact, whenever I ring the council,

they must think, "Oh, it's that woman again."

"She's nothing but a pest." But I'm a afraid I'm a bit dogmatic and keep on with it.

Quite right, Jackie!

This kind of tireless and quite frankly ingenious sleuthing

is invaluable.

We see the dumpers coming down here. We follow them in the truck

or in the Land Rover, and they see us coming,

and they escape at the other end, or, if it's a tip-up truck,

they put the back up and they drop the rubbish as they go,

so there's not a lot we can do about that.

She says that, but you can be sure the council get a call

with the registration number of the offending vehicle.

Hi. It's Jackie Dusi, Dockhills Farm, Arksey.

And you won't be surprised to hear that Jackie has a fitting punishment

for anyone caught dumping.

They ought to send them into the community -

not only fine them, send them out clearing up litter, any litter.

There's plenty of litter about just walking round the streets.

A swift clip around the ear with your incident book, eh, Jackie?

Further on down the lane, Gerald and Louise have come across a fly tip

which is bound to get Jackie seeing red, and who can blame her?

What's that? They've set that on fire.

That looks like Fred's field, that.

No regard whatsoever. The farmer's got to use this lane

to get to his fields.

They've no respect for anybody. It's absolutely disgusting.

Even Gerald seems shocked by this one.

You can see here how bad it is for cables, cable theft.

That's all cable sleeves.

It's another outrageous dump,

but it's thrown up a very useful clue.

Have you a bit of evidence?

Not bad at all! This could be fly-tipping gold dust.

We've just found a registration plate,

just next to the fly-tipping.

There's a chance that it's not linked,

but there is a chance that it might be associated with the vehicle

that's been in the area dumping rubbish.

Louise gets straight onto the phone to the police

to see if she can find out any more.

All right. That's lovely. Thanks ever so much. Bye-bye.

It is a white Mercedes Sprinter vehicle,

so there is a possibility

that it might be something to do with the tipping that's here.

What we'll do is, we'll actually just submit this

with the evidence that we've found in the area

to the FLAG team, and they can look into this further.

Any lead is encouraging in the face of this depressing sea of rubbish.

As you've seen for yourself, the amount of fly-tipping here's horrendous.

And this is regular here. And it's the poor farmer

who's got to pick up the bill for all this. It's just not fair, is it?

Yes, I bet that farmer feels as though he's been dumped on

from a great height. The good news from this mess

is that Gerald and Louise have three good pieces of evidence

to pass on to the environmental-investigation team.

Not a bad couple of hours' work!

Jackie's also clocked the new dump,

and it's all a bit too close to home.

Again, you know, this is nearly on my doorstep.

We farm in this area. If this was our field,

and we've got to come round with the combine, I wouldn't be pleased.

It's so close to my house that I could actually cry, when I see this,

because it's such a mess! We don't need this.

You know, would these people that are dumping it

like to look out of their house and see all this mess?

And that's the point, isn't it? No-one wants to look at this lot.

But whoever's doing this illegal dumping

just doesn't think, or doesn't care.

And there's bits of wire, some old stepladders,

bricks...

All stuff that could be taken to the dumping site.

It's disgusting, isn't it? Just imagine walking along here

with your kids on a nice sunny afternoon!

"Come on, kids. We'll go out for a walk." And that's what you see.

But this is where things become more sinister,

because Jackie thinks these heaps of waste

could have been deliberately put there

to stop people accessing the area because there's other wrongdoings going on.

Hmm, typical! That's a car being burnt off,

or more wire being burnt off. You can tell that with the black smoke

that's coming up.

Is it the railway robbers burning off more casings from copper wire?

Whatever it is, it's definitely unwelcome.

We're back with our hero of the hour, Stuart McDonald,

on his cheerful mission to clear up after the filthy rotten scoundrels

of Lincolnshire. His last job saw him manhandling two sofas

onto the back of his lorry - no cushy number,

but at least they haven't got sharp edges.

Stuart often has far more dangerous items to deal with.

You got to be very careful. If you sometimes come across

a pile of clothes on the floor, you don't know what's inside.

It could be just old kiddies' toys or teddies that's wrapped inside them,

but we also sometimes move stuff and there's the odd needle

on the floor. And it could be because it's a diabetic.

It's not forced to be drug related.

So you have to be a bit careful when you're handling the bags.

Wiser words have never been spoken. And only just in time!

Look at what Stuart's picked up at his third stop.

Knife. Not very nice, that is.

Yes, you have to watch what you pick up on this job, I'm afraid.

Crikey, you can say that again!

I gashed my hand open once with, er...

I think it was, like, either an old sink

or an old pedestal or something that had been smashed,

and it was, like, sharp as a razor.

And it just went right down to the bone.

When I first started, I was a bit more worried

about what you could come across,

but I think I just take it in my stride now.

Stuart, you're the personification of taking it in your stride.

People of Lincolnshire, you should be very proud of what this man does every day.

But surely there's some things even a hardened rubbish man

would hate to have to pick up.

I wouldn't like to come across body parts.

I never have done, and I hope I never do.

Sometimes you come across bags of dog waste,

and that's not very good.

Seems like the job is just full of hazards,

and handling wayward wildlife, it seems,

is just par for the course.

I've found a bee, but I don't want to kill it.

I like bees, but not when they sting.

I got to get him out.

Oh, he's gone. HE CHUCKLES

Oh, I'm pleased he's gone.

But the relief is short-lived. Our buzzy little buddy is back,

and gets his revenge for being evicted. Poor old Stuart!

That's got to hurt.

I think I've got stung. Yes, it feels like it.

I got stung three times last year,

twice on the same day, by the same wasp or bee.

It feels like something's been down my T-shirt

and stung me all up the side. Probably got me a few times

before it dropped out.

Unbelievable!

If ever a man didn't deserve this, it's our Stuart.

But, true to form, he's undeterred and keeps on trucking.

When I first started this job,

I didn't seem to think

that I could ever think that I'm proud of what I'm doing,

but I suppose the longer I've done it,

I think that's sort of altered a little bit.

If I can pick this stuff up, which we do every week,

and it's making the area a lot better for people

to drive round and walk round,

then I suppose I should take a bit of pride in that, really,

because it does make a difference to certain people.

Some people don't care if they live in a pigsty.

You should be proud. You're doing a sterling job, Stuart.

Oh, some polythene, black bags,

er, an old...

rabbit hutch or something.

Just spotted some more. It looks like an old settee,

or chairs, or something.

That's ridiculous - leaving a pile like that ruining our countryside.

I wonder how often these refuse rascals actually get caught.

Sometimes you come across letters to help you,

but, er, not very often.

Hang on a minute! Is that what I think it is?

Hmm, interesting!

I've got a picture of somebody, and a name and address.

Whether that's the person who's tipped it, we don't know,

but looks like a CV. It looks very strange to see that.

And then, if they are responsible for what I've just picked up,

it don't seem to go with it.

"I am a motivated individual who is conscientious and determined."

"I feel I am a very practical person with lots of common sense."

Um, I hate to point out the obvious, but not really common sense

to allow your picture, name and address to be found

next to a pile of fly-tipped rubbish.

So we'll put that in the cab

for Jenny or somebody to look at.

See what they can make of that.

Stuart's office get to send out warning letters

to people who leave ID at these types of fly tips.

Sometimes it leads to prosecutions,

although that didn't happen in this case.

Right. We've had a telly, a couple of sofas,

a broken toilet, an old shed, the Manchester United rug,

the CV, of course, and the remains of an armchair,

all off the streets.

Sounds like a good day's work by anyone's standards.

But Stuart's not quite done yet.

We're just going to the last job to see what's there.

I'm not sure what's there. It's a regular tipping place for us.

We get it fairly regular.

This site we're at at the moment, just down this passageway,

is a fairly regular one that we get every so many weeks.

Sometimes I think people sleep down there rough or something.

We've not come across any people,

but we often get boxes or old palettes or something,

so we'll see what there is today.

How does this man remain so cheerful?

Oh, right. Looks like we got some underlay or carpet or something here.

Er, not too bad. We've had worse here.

No, it's not too bad at all, this one,

which is good for the last job.

Well done, mate. Now, please get home for a cuppa

and put your feet up.

As Stuart eases into his slippers,

the youngsters of Middlesbrough are hitting the town

in their dancing shoes. But their every move is being monitored

by CCTV that answers back.

This is a public announcement. Members of the public are reminded

that littering attracts an £80 fine.

Keep Middlesbrough tidy. Thank you.

Nice try, Jack, but it seems your little litter reminder

has fallen on deaf ears this time.

Will the gentleman leaving the Crown please pick up the litter

he's just dropped?

Oh, no! Maybe he can't hear you,

or he's just too busy making friends with that lamp post.

The gentleman in the blue top with the white T-shirt on,

could you please pick up the litter that you've just dropped?

No, it's not your phone, doughnut!

It's the speaker on the camera talking to you.

Will the gentleman near the Crown please pick up the litter

he's just dropped? Testing. Testing.

Oh, dear! There might be a technology failure here.

Either that, or the litterbug is just too drunk to respond.

And he's at it again.

Well, we've got sufficient evidence to publish that face.

We're not just talking about a "wanted" poster here.

Jack's team regularly publish photos of offenders in the local paper.

And if this blotto'd bin-dodger is identified,

he'll face an £80 fine.

I suspect that will make it the most expensive kebab he's ever eaten.

The big offence was littering.

He discarded the food wrappers that he'd been eating from.

As you can see, it's still scattered across the road.

And what the offender won't realise

is that his litter has turned the pavement

into a tricky obstacle course for this young man.

Now, here's a dustbin dodger with a difference.

This young man is about to throw his empty bottle on the ground.

Can the young lad who's just discarded the empty bottle

please pick it up?

There you go. It must feel good to do the right thing.

Well done. Now, hang on a minute. What's he doing?

It can't take that long to put a bottle in the bin.

Oh, I see. It's thirsty work, is it?

He's found a can of drink in the dustbin

that he's happy to dispose of - straight down his throat!

Ugh, you don't know whose chops have been around that,

or what's in it.

We've had some beautiful reactions from the participants -

one gentleman urinating, tried to tuck himself away,

urinated down his leg but ran away laughing,

and his friend then turned round, looked at us and told us,

"I love you." We did say, "Thank you very much."

And it seems he wasn't the only one feeling the love in Middlesbrough town centre.

Here we see the perfect end to a perfect romantic evening -

a little good-night kiss. But, oh, we seem to have missed something.

I'm sure that takeaway box must have just slipped from her hand

in the heat of the moment. Could this be some kind of mating ritual

where the woman throws her wrapper at her suitor's feet

to claim her man? No - just another example

of lazy littering, then.

Could the female in a light T-shirt

outside of Darlington Building Society

pick your rubbish up and place it in the bin, please?

-Well done, madam.

-Thank you very much.

The team say nearly all the litterbugs do as they're told

when they're caught red-handed. But for some,

the cameras still seem a bit too intrusive.

Is it Big Brother? No, it is not.

The speakers, as are the CCTV,

are only directed to the people who are committing an offence.

It's the minority that cause the antisocial behaviour.

It's the minority that drop litter

and cause the expense of people having to clean it up.

The cameras are here for one specific purpose,

and that's to ensure that the law is upheld,

and we can provide the evidence for that.

And from tricksy takeaway littering to more dicey drop-offs.

It isn't all about people dropping rubbish and fag butts.

The CCTV operators have to be on the lookout

for things that are far more sinister, too.

This looks very dodgy, as the man on the bike rides up

and carefully places a suspicious package on the ground.

He's just put something down there, hasn't he?

A drug deal? Laundered money? An illegal small pet?

In fact, the officers on the ground discover

that the man has just left a broken umbrella on the pavement. Phew!

But why do it? Put it in the bin, man! There's plenty around.

But these cameras have helped to stamp out more than just littering.

Antisocial behaviour has decreased significantly in the area

since the cameras have been around.

But, like in any large night spot

where there's the heady cocktail of young people and alcohol mixing,

there's always going to be the odd flare-up.

Oh, another one being thrown out - literally!

HE LAUGHS

Pictures of the young troublemaker here were made available

to the police. So, is it worth it?

The cameras have cost the council about £60,000.

But they can offset that against the cost

of the six mechanical road-sweepers they've now retired

thanks to cleaner streets.

Since 2006, we now have no mechanical road-sweepers,

which has saved the town somewhere in the region

of about £100,000, £120,000,

and the town centre's certainly been cleaned up, and cleaned up a lot.

That's a great result, and if it saves money too,

who can complain? I have a feeling plenty of other councils

will soon be saying, "Lights, camera, action."

You are being monitored by CCTV.

We've seen the evidence gathering.

It clearly shows a name and address. We can attach this as evidence,

so that hopefully somebody can be prosecuted.

We've seen the dusk patrols.

They'll start coming up the lane, doing the fly-tipping,

so I'm usually about watering my plants

and keeping an eye on what's going off.

Now it's time to get technical and bring in the hidden cameras.

Environmental-enforcement officer Rob

wants to take this anti-dumping operation up a gear

by training a camera on the area. He's hoping his tactic

will nail the villains responsible for using the Balk as a tip.

I want to get the cameras put out on this particular lane

so that I can ensure that if anybody comes down here now,

in the next few days we'll capture them coming down

and fly-tipping, and obviously that'll help us

to get a prosecution up.

He's pinpointed exactly where the camera can pick up the most action.

There's only one way in and one way out of this area,

and possibly we'll get them coming back out

once they've dumped the waste, so we need to get material results

on the back of the wagon, the registration of the vehicle,

hopefully make and model,

and hopefully also the description of the people who are doing it.

CCTV evidence is the gold that can really skewer these dirty rotten scoundrels,

because it's very difficult to argue that it wasn't you

if you've been captured breaking the law in glorious Technicolor.

So now I'm just going to put this camera onto this area here,

which is the branch of a tree.

It'll look right out onto the lane.

Rob's banking on it working

where countless patrols, investigations and warning signs have not.

This is a last resort. We've now got authorisation

to put these cameras in, and hopefully we'll get some good results

from this camera, and that'll help us with the prosecution.

I'll be coming back tomorrow to see what it's captured.

Fingers crossed, this little piece of technology

catches the rotters red-handed, and all this dumping will stop.

For the clean-up team who've just arrived at the Balk,

it's all a bit too much like Groundhog Day.

It's just a never-ending job. They can clear this today,

and it'll be exactly the same again next week. Yeah.

Yeah, it's a popular spot.

Oh, it's frustrating.

The trouble is, it's not just here. It's the whole borough.

This down here, it can range from asbestos...

We've even had, like, dead animals we've had to pick up.

It's everything in general. Many a time when we come down here,

we never know what to expect, to be honest.

It's like Carl just said. Last year we shifted 22 ton in one day.

22 tons of illegally dumped rubbish in a single day!

This is a serious business. Today's tips are so large,

Rob's had to call in a truck with a grabber.

Looks like we're going to have to come back again

because there's that much of it. There must be at least a ton of waste

in this particular area.

And that's not cheap,

and it all goes on the taxpayer's bill in the end.

Does keep us in a job, but at the end of the day, we pay taxes as well,

and it's coming out of our money as well,

and, er, sometimes it can be a thankless job,

because you can come down, clear the lane...

It'll look totally nice and clear, and you can come two days later -

boom, it's been hit again.

It would be brilliant if the CCTV did catch the wrongdoers,

and if it did, no-one would be more delighted than Jackie Dusi.

I've lived in this area for 38 years,

and I love the area, and it upsets me greatly

when, um...I can't use the facilities in the countryside.

One day later, and Rob is back to the Balk

to check his concealed camera is doing its stuff.

So I'm just having a look at that now.

I'm quite pleased with that, to be quite honest.

That's a really good view. See what we get.

Um... Looks like it might be the farmer.

He's going into his field. What I'm liking about this

is that this camera is actually capturing that quite nicely.

That gives me a lot of hope that when we do get a fly-tipper down here,

and they dump the waste on this lane,

we'll capture that image of that registration,

so that's excellent news for us.

So far, so good. It's all working,

and in prime position to capture dumpers sneaking up the lane.

Now it's back in the bush to replace the card in the camera.

Yeah. Starting to feel a bit like Ray Mears now in these bushes.

I think you're on to something, Rob. If the CCTV doesn't work,

maybe you should start camping down here -

whatever it takes to stamp out this filthy rotten crime

and give this country lane back to the people who want to walk,

ride, and farm their land.

Every week of the year, dedicated teams are working hard

across our villages, towns and cities,

determined to clean up the streets of Britain.

Join us next time,

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

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail [email protected]

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