City Lib Dems have called for bulky waste collection charges to be scrapped to help tackle a "fly-tipping epidemic" in Sunderland.
With increasing budget pressures, the majority of councils have introduced additional charges for bulky waste collections - a service many once provided for free.
Bulky waste includes furniture, large household electrical items and white goods such as fridges and freezers.
In Sunderland, the council charges £22.50 to collect up to six items - with an extra £5 surcharge added for each sofa, fridge or freezer or up to six bags of builders rubble.
Last week, the Local Government Association (LGA), made calls for increased council powers to tackle fly-tipping after revealing incidents had risen by almost 40% nationally - a jump from 714,637 in 2012/13 to 997,553 in 2017/18.
While an LGA survey found no direct link between council charges and fly-tipping, Sunderland's Liberal Democrats say the bulky waste bills are having a local impact.
And they have now called for Sunderland City Council to scrap the fees, which they claim push more people towards fly-tipping.
Coun Martin Haswell, who represents Pallion ward on the city council, said the issue has reached "crisis point" in many areas.
"The LGA are absolutely right that councils need more funding and greater powers to deal with and investigate fly-tipping which has reached crisis point in my part of the city in Pallion, as well as places like Millfield, Hendon and Southwick," he said.
"That's why Lib Dem councillors voted at Sunderland council to urge the Government to review funding for local authorities.
"However, Sunderland City Council needs to take its fair share of the blame here.
"For years they have ignored the outcry from residents who are up in arms at the state of local streets and back lanes which are suffering from a fly-tipping epidemic.
"They've also introduced and increased charges for bulky waste collections - and they wonder why more people are fly-tipping."
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Last year, the Labour-controlled council invested an extra £1.5m into frontline environmental services, including a range of enforcement measures.
Alongside increased staffing in environmental teams, the authority adopted new powers to seize and crush vehicles used in fly-tipping offences.
However, Lib Dems says council bosses are "only now starting to invest in these services when it's too late."
Coun Haswell added the solution includes council bosses investing in more street cleaning staff and scrapping bulky waste collection fees instead of "wasting money on vanity projects."
These changes, he said, would "make it easy and affordable for people to do the right thing and get rid of rubbish responsibly."
A Sunderland City Council spokesman added: "As the LGA says, there are no excuses for fly-tipping or any littering.
"The council would also welcome tougher penalties in the courts against fly-tippers.
"Here in Sunderland, the charge for collecting bulky items was introduced in April 2013 as a direct consequence of efficiency savings under the then coalition Government's austerity programme.
"The council continues to invest in front-line environmental services and make very tough spending decisions but with less money.
"And, protecting the vulnerable plus investing in our city's infrastructure to help promote economic growth are not classed by the council as vanity projects."
New figures released earlier this year revealed the scale of fly-tipping in Sunderland - including the top five hotspot areas.
The data, between April 2018 and December 2018, listed Millfield as the worst area, with 1,373 complaints linked to "illegal deposit of waste."
Other hotspots included Hendon (781), Pallion (436), Barnes (432) and Hetton (335).
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