A van driver has paid a penalty of £1000 after being caught on CCTV dumping a mattress in a roadside ditch.

The mattress was found by Buckinghamshire Council investigators in a ditch on the A412 in Iver Heath on April 27.

A traffic monitoring camera pointed at the area showed a man taking it from his van and throwing it into the ditch before driving away.

The guilty party was tracked and paid a fine of £1000 after receiving a fixed penalty notice.

Bucks Council introduced the new fixed penalty rate of £1000 for fly-tippers in December.

(Image: Buckinghamshire Council)

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Speaking earlier this year, Thomas Broom, the council’s cabinet member for climate change and environment, said: “We want to send a clear message to people that (fly-tipping) will not be tolerated, and we will pursue you.

“For lower-level cases, the offender’s admission means we can now deal with it at the fixed penalty level rather than prosecuting the case in court, meaning our officers are able to focus their efforts on more prolific offending.”

He also drew attention to the particular epidemic of offences along the A412, adding: “The laybys on the A412 are regularly subjected to fly-tipping and the ditches can become clogged with dumped waste.

“These ditches are meant to allow surface water drainage to maintain a safe surface for road users and should not be viewed as a dumping ground. The required traffic control measures to allow safe removal of dumped waste from fast roads presents council taxpayers with a bill of tens of thousands of pounds annually.”

To report fly-tipping anywhere in Buckinghamshire, visit www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/fix-my-street.