A TOTAL of 15 trucks full of fly-tipped rubbish were driven into Walthamstow Town Square this morning as part of a council stunt.

Cllr Clyde Loakes, the authority's cabinet member for the environment, said he hoped it would shock people into "thinking twice" about dumping waste in the streets.

The spectacle marked the launch of a new council publicity drive to combat fly-tipping, which costs the borough an estimated £1.5million a year.

A council spokesman said the quantity reflected the amount of street rubbish collected between 5am and 7am on "an average morning" in the borough.

Cllr Loakes added: “There is absolutely no excuse to fly-tip in Waltham Forest because we’ll take your rubbish away free of charge. We simply won’t stand for it.

“We spend a fortune each year on clearing rubbish from our streets and it infuriates residents when they see sofas and mattress dumped on the pavement.

“We think showing people the amount of rubbish we clear in just two hours every morning will really shock them and hopefully make people think twice before they dump unwanted items on the road.

“Residents who choose to fly-tip also need to be aware that we are constantly gathering evidence to prosecute and if we catch them at it we’ll prosecute them and they are likely to end up facing a hefty fine.”

The council are urging resident to use its free bulky waste collection service instead.

However it comes just two weeks after the authority was accused of fly-tipping itself after a builder discovered that some council cardboard boxes were dumped in his skip.

The council apologised and blamed the incident on an inexperienced contract worker.

Click here to follow the Waltham Forest Guardian on Twitter