Coventry City Council has reduced the time taken to report flytipping crime from 30 hours to just two-and-a-half minutes using handheld computers.

Seventy wardens and 10 environmental crime officers have been issued with the devices with in-built cameras for capturing photographic evidence.

Data is uploaded to a web-based system and then emailed to the clean-up crews or the Environmental Crime Unit.

The system has revolutionised the efficiency of reporting environmental crime, said Paul Ward, senior systems developer at Coventry City Council.

‘’The former method of reporting flytipping was paper based. The whole process could take a long time just to get the job into a queue for collection, " he said.

"By using a PDA, the wardens are now able to report incidents immediately, attach photographic evidence, and submit the form directly to the right council team, with enterprise-level tracking of the problem to completion."

The internally-developed system uses with software from supplier Lagan.