New English laws may show way for penalising offenders

Councils in England have collected more than £750,000 from thousands of fly-tipping fines in the first year of a crackdown on illegal waste dumping, figures show.

Local authorities across England handed out more than 4,600 fixed penalty notices and collected at least £773,000 for the offence in the year after the Government gave them new powers to issue “on the spot” fines in May 2016.

However, many have not used the powers, which allow councils to issue penalties of between £150-£400 to those caught in the act of fly-tipping instead of having to take them to court, a Freedom of Information request by the Press Association found.

Of 297 English councils who responded with figures, more than two-fifths (43%) said they had not issued any fly-tipping notices between May 9 2016 when the powers were first launched and May 8 this year.

Some councils have started using them more recently or are planning to use them, while smaller fines for littering continue to be used for lowlevel waste problems and more serious cases end up in prosecutions, the responses show.

London boroughs made up most of the top 10 local authorities who had issued the most fixed penalties, with Westminster topping the responses, having handed out 787 fines and collected around £130,000 according to council estimates.

Westminster City Council cabinet member for environment, sport and community David Harvey said with more businesses and visitors than any other destination in Europe, Westminster faced “unique circumstances”.

“Fly-tipping is a serious offence – dirty streets and public spaces seriously affect people’s quality of life.

“Where we have to, we issue fixed penalty notices in order to keep the city’s streets clean and tidy and to ensure that our public spaces remain nice places for the millions of people living, working and visiting the city.”

North London’s Haringey, which has one of England’s highest levels of fly-tipping according to official statistics, handed out 288 penalty notices and collected £103,000.

Across England, the number of fly-tipping incidents have risen for three years in a row, government figures show, with councils reporting 936,090 cases in 2015-2016, up 4% on the previous year. Clearing up fly-tipped rubbish cost councils almost £50 million in 2015-2016, while enforcement action cost nearly £17m.

Local Government Association environment spokesman Martin Tett said the move by the Government to allow councils to apply fixed penalty notices for small scale fly-tipping – in response to requests from town halls – had been a “big step in the right direction” to help crackdown on fly-tippers, he said.

However, he said councils may still feel prosecutions were the most effective action.

Picture: PA. An illegal fly-tipping site near the Thames estuary in Essex. English councils can now levy on the spot fines.