Flytipping is soaring... as prosecutions hit new low

THE number of fly tippers successfully prosecuted by councils has fallen to a record low while offences have rocketed.

Town halls in England secured just 1,571 prosecutions for the offence in 2016-17. This compares to 2,209 in 2007-8.

There were more than a million fly-tipping incidents recorded in England in 2016-17, or 114 every hour, according to Government figures. That compares to 936,090 the previous year and 711,500 cases in 2012-13.

although fewer people are taken to court, the number of fixed penalty fines for fly-tippers has more than doubled to just under 56,000.

The problem’s true scale is likely to be much higher as the official figures cover only dumping on public land. Dumping rubbish on private land is the responsibility of the landowner.

Fewer domestic bin collections and the increased prevalence of councils charging fees for taking certain types of rubbish to

‘Environmental vandalism’

council-owned tips has been blamed for some of the rise in cases.

However, the Local Government association, which represents councils, insists it wants a ‘more effective legal system’.

Environment spokesman Martin Tett said: ‘Litter and fly-tipping is environmental vandalism.

‘clearing up fly-tipping is costing councils more than £57million a year, money that could be spent on services, like caring for the elderly, protecting children or tackling homelessness.’

He continued: ‘ The Government has allowed us to apply fixed penalty notices for small-scale fly-tipping – and this is a big step in the right direction.

‘When they take offenders to court, councils need a faster and more effective legal system which means fly-tippers are given hard- hitting fines for more serious offences’.

a Government spokesman said: ‘ We have cracked down on offenders by helping to strengthen sentencing guidelines, allowing councils to hand out on-the-spot fines and making it easier for vehicles to be stopped, searched and seized.’