We asked this on January 24 shortly after one of our team had noticed a worn tyre perched casually on the corner of Elm Street, Woodbine Street and London Road, balanced on a herb garden tended by members of the local community.

The answers, from across the city, showed its ugliest side.

One resident, Graham Thompson, said that he had stopped reporting fly tipping in his local park as it was a 'waste of time'. Pauline Oliver said that in Dogsthorpe furniture is dumped on grass verges everywhere. Janne Kerr said that near Lincoln Road/the underpass leading to the new Aldi the area is 'absolutely disgusting', with filthy mattresses and junk.

And Hazel Cottrell raised the issue of fly-tipping on land that is not council owned - and therefore the authority will not take it, and the problem gets worse.

Fly tipping currently costs the cash-strapped authority annually over £200,000 in collection alone just from PCC-owned land.

Recent figures from the BBC Shared Data Unit also did not make pleasant reading for our city - major flytipping incidents have risen from 60 in 2011/12 to 114 in 2018/19 - a rise of 90%.

Flytip 2

A dumped fridge, complete with rotting burgers

However, the council insists it is turning the tide.

It points at the fact that in 2018/19 Peterborough City Council faced 7,282 fly-tipping incidents - just over 100 more than the previous year's total of 7,198 - but this number should be significantly lower for 19/20

We reported yesterday on the council's apparent success of the new Household Recycling Centre in its first year; alongside the 'Scrap it' disposal awareness campaign.

These have driven down incident numbers by 1,010 for the period of April to November compared to the same period the year before.

Still, in 2019, the council prosecuted just 14 cases for fly-tipping; this resulted in six convictions and three cases are on-going. In 2019, 195 fixed penalty notices of up to £400 were issued for fly-tipping.

Flytip 4

A post warning of fines for flytippers - a pile of waste can be seen in the distance

Other ways of tackling the issue include a task and finish group set up last year which is continuing to explore options to help tackle the problem, and the purchase of covert and overt cameras.

We spoke about some of these issues with Andrea - a Peterborough resident who took us to some areas of the city commonly blighted by flytipping - and Cllr Marco Cereste, cabinet member for waste, street scene and the environment for Peterborough City Council.

You can hear their responses in our new Peterborough Natters podcast here: