Croydon Council spent almost £2million cleaning up fly-tips in a single year, new figures reveal.

A Freedom of Information Request submitted by the Croydon Guardian found that from April 2017 to April 2018 £1,929,312 was spent dealing with 19,488 individual cases across the borough.

Private company Veolia has carried out the service since 2013, and the provider was recently awarded a renewed contract that will see the arrangement continue long-term.

Thornton Heath was the worst offending area, with 2,318 fly-tips costing more than £220,000 to clean up.

Second was Norbury, where 1610 instances cost more than £150,000 to remove.

Again in the north of the borough, 1501 fly-tips in Selhurst cost more than £140,000 to clear.

A Croydon Council spokesman said: “Veolia clear fly-tips across Croydon on behalf of the council.

"This job was put out for tender as part of the borough’s waste management contract which Veolia won last year.

“Fly-tipping is a problem across the country but Croydon Council launched the award-winning Don’t Mess With Croydon – Take Pride campaign in 2014 to address the problem in the borough.

“As part of that we have seized 39 and crushed 25 vans associated with fly-tipping, introduced time-banded collections in high problem areas and always look to prosecute fly-tippers.

“The new Don’t Mess With Croydon app makes it easier than ever before to report fly-tips directly to the right team at the council.”