Major increase in fines for fly-tipping crooks
New £400 fines approved to target issue
A GET tough stance is being taken by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council on fly-tippers.
Perpetrators will be slapped with a £400 fine if caught dumping rubbish.
A report to members of Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council executive committee suggested introducing a £200 fixed penalty notice for offenders.
However, councillors felt the fine should be set at the maximum amount allowed under the new regulations and approved the £400 levy, reduced to £125 for early payment within 10 days. Previously the fine was £80.
While under the Environ- mental Protection Act 1990 unauthorised dumping of rubbish has been dealt with by way of prosecution, for small scale offences this is seen as time consuming and costly - leading to the introduction of on-the-spot notices.
Large scale tipping will continue to be prosecuted with written criteria being drawn up to define what is large and what is small scale.
For repeat and commercial fly-tipping, prosecution is automatic.
The move comes amid a seeming recent upsurge in incidents, which some have argued is down to new charges being introduced to use tips, reduced opening hours and the new green waste tax.
In June a huge pile of rubbish was dumped on a road- side outside Earl Shilton in one of the largest fly-tipping incidents the council had ever seen.
Comprising a mixture of discarded household appliances, trees, mattresses and building rubble it needed the equivalent of 30 trucks to clear it away.
Last year the authority had to deal with 602 incidents of fly-tipping, an increase of 20% over 2014. In the Earl Shilton instance the cost of clearing the mess was met by the landowner as it was on private land, but taxpayers typically foot the bill for the 40 fly-tips illegally dumped around the borough every month to the tune of around £26,000 a year.
According to the council many of these incidents are the result of small businesses being paid by residents to dispose of their rubbish legally but then fly-tipping it instead.
Offenders are being warned fly-tip hotspots are being monitored closely.
The ability to punish fly-tipping with on the spot fines has been enabled due to change in national regulations.