Steep rise in council fines for fly-tipping

Maximum fixed penalty notices go up to £1,000

Fly-tipping fines in South Bucks more than doubled in December with the maximum fixed penalty notice (FPN) going up to £1,000.

Changes to the law made in 2023 gave borough councils the option of charging greater fees.

Last month, Buckinghamshire Council’s cabinet voted in favour of bringing local policies in line with national penalties and increased the single fly-tipping fine from £400 to £1,000. The fines came into effect on Monday, December 18.

The penalty for failure in householder duty of care has also seen an increase under the new law. Each incident’s fine has been raised £200 from £400 to £600. This is where a householder fails to check the credentials of a third-party waste carrier. The law states that householders have a duty to check that the carrier has a licence to collect and dispose of waste correctly.

This means that if the household waste is later fly-tipped and the offender caught, the householder will face a fine as well as the perpetrator.

Further penalties such as custodial sentences could apply to more serious fly-tipping offences.

Gareth Williams, cabinet member for climate change and environment, said:

“Where previously we have only been able to impose a fixed penalty notice of £400, we can now increase that figure to £1,000.

“That is a lot of money to most people, and we hope it will act as a greater deterrent against fly-tipping. This further illustrates our zero-tolerance approach to fly-tipping in Buckinghamshire.”

Throughout 2023 Buckinghamshire Council’s enforcement team dealt with 68 fly-tipping offences resulting in court prosecution fines and fixed penalties totalling more than £55,000.

Burnham-based waste management boss Matt Keating, of General Waste and Refuse Removal, said that Burnham, in particular, has suffered from fly-tippers and the problem could get worse.

“The root of the problem is no one wants to pay the disposal fees, which have also gone up,” he said.

“So they fly-tip. I saw this coming a year ago and tried to speak to councillors about it.”

Matt also said that there has been an increase in ‘man with a van’ services who collect people’s rubbish.

“The trouble with them is, unlike us and other good firms, they don’t have the correct licences to dispose of rubbish correctly and they end up fly-tipping it.

“Some of them are using expired licences as well so I would encourage the public to use a firm they trust. You need to see the licence and also get them to show you proof – we provide evidence of how we’ve correctly disposed of their items.”

Two years ago Matt and his colleagues impressed the community by clearing regular flytipping sites around the Burnham and Farnham Common areas for free.

“We did it as a goodwill gesture because we couldn’t stand to see broken glass being dumped along footpaths where children play, or woods being fly-tipped in, but we can’t carry on clearing it up as that adds to the problem.

“We still help the community where we can and focus on helping the elderly and we do a lot of work for Age Concern,” he said.

Buckinghamshire Council advises checking the credentials of any waste carrier, paying through a traceable method (no cash) and ensuring that the company is registered with the Environment Agency.

“Rogue waste carriers almost always want cash,” Cllr Williams warned.

“If they take an online payment, it is much easier for us to detect them and seek to prosecute. If the waste is found dumped illegally and we are unable to trace the carrier, the householder may be found liable and be forced to pay an FPN or go to court.”