One man has taken a stand against Leeds City Council by refusing to pay his tax.
Carl Thewlis, 30, of Station Parade in Kirkstall, is refusing to pay his rates until the authority ‘starts doing its job’.
Since moving to his address in November last year, Mr Thewlis has been tackling the issue of fly-tipping.
Along with neighbours he has cleared away a sofa suite, wardrobe, several other pieces of furniture and around 20 bags of rubbish to his local tip.
When another load of furniture – including a white sofa, pictured – appeared, Mr Thewlis decided something more permanent needed to be done.
He appealed to Leeds City Council to install gates at either end of the passageway to stop people dumping. It would also deter other crimes, he said, including burglary, graffiti and strangers rummaging through wheelie bins and throwing litter everywhere.
But for now he has cancelled his monthly council tax payments in protest at the lack of support.
Mr Thewlis said: “To the rear of my property my bins are constantly looted, tipped over, rummaged through and waste scattered all over the rear alley way.
“It is very likely with these conditions someone is going to fall ill as flies are everywhere and rats are now breeding at an alarming rate.”
The YEP reported the matter to the council, and the dumped furniture has now been cleared.
But Mr Thewlis is left fighting his corner after the Council took him to court and he was told to pay his council tax in advance up until May next year.
He said: “If [the council] spent more time and money on keeping the waste problem managed, and less on trying to take people to court, more people would take pride in their city and be happy to pay [tax].
He added: “Needless to say the council has managed to muster the time, money and effort to try to obtain a liability order against me for none payment but failed to solve the problem.”
A Leeds City Council spokeswoman apologised to residents for the unusual delay in cleaning up the illegally dumped waste. Fly-tipping costs the council hundreds of thousands of pounds to deal with each year.