Beware of criminal Facebook fly-tippers, householders warned

HOUSEHOLDS are being warned to steer clear of “Facebook fly-tippers” who offer cheap waste collection services, as a surge in rubbish dumping is costing council taxpayers £7million more a year.

The cost to taxpayers of clearing up fly-tipping rose by 13 per cent from £50 million to more than £57 million over the past year, official figures show, leaving less money for spending on public services. Local authorities in England dealt with around a million flytipping incidents over the past year, an annual increase of seven per cent, according to the latest government data.

A growing industry of criminal rubbish collectors who advertise their services on social media sites such as Facebook are largely behind the increase, the Local Government Association (LGA) warned.

A spokesman for the LGA said: “Small scale criminals are attempting to undercut legitimate services by offering to take household rubbish away cheaply. But often they are just dumping items on other people’s land or in public. People should avoid using these services as they are driving the problem.”

The warning comes as households caught using illegal fly-tipping services for household waste will be fined a fixed penalty notice of £400 from later this year under a new, harsher regime being brought in by the Government to combat the illegal activity.

Typical clearance costs charged by the council for a “small van load’ is £56, while a “transit van load” costs £115, according to an official report.

Two thirds (67 per cent) of fly-tips involved household waste, with incidents involving household waste up by eight per cent for the year. Allison Ogden-newton, chief executive at Keep Britain Tidy, said: “These statistics are shocking but not surprising.

“Local authorities are fighting a daily battle with criminal fly-tippers who are making money by treating our country like a rubbish dump.

“We know that about 50 per cent of people don’t know that they have a duty of care to dispose of their unwanted stuff correctly, and that they can be fined or prosecuted if their rubbish is subsequently fly-tipped. Local authorities are having to make tough choices when it comes to services but are forced to spend millions of pounds clearing the rubbish dumped by a thoughtless minority.”

Last month Thérèse Coffey, the environment minister, said that she was “determined to stamp out an anti-social crime that blighted the countryside and our streets”.

Cllr Martin Tett, the LGA’S environment spokesman, said: “Fly-tipping is unsightly and unacceptable environmental vandalism.”