Fly-tipping fines ‘a load of rubbish’
JUST two people have been fined the maximum £50,000 for flytipping in the seven years since new penalty guidelines came into force.
This is despite the annual figure for offences topping one million.
Figures obtained from the campaign group Clean Up Britain show 83 per cent of fines for fly-tipping were below £500.
The paltry punishments come despite a Uk-wide epidemic in fly-tipping. Cases soared from just over 714,000 in 2012-2013 to over a million in 2018-2019. And research by the Sunday Express has found cashstrapped councils are effectively operating a collection service for people who report their own fly-tips anonymously online in the knowledge that local authorities have a duty to clean up the mess.
One individual challenged by our investigator on why he was adding to an existing fly-tip close to his own property in Surrey, replied: “Don’t worry, the council know about it, they will clear it up.”
Council chiefs at Tandrige, where the incident occurred, said they would be speaking to the individual photographed by our investigator but added “prosecutions are difficult to achieve” and the “Covid-19 pandemic meant court delays” were contributing to a lack of convictions. Critics have described the state of fly-tipping across Britain as a “national disgrace” and have called for a minimum £5,000 fine.
John Read, founder of Clean Up Britain, said: “If people can’t or won’t pay, councils must be given the power to seize vehicles and sell them to cover the fine and their costs.
“Fly-tippers should also get an automatic criminal record. It’s time the Government came down hard on people who are polluting Britain’s beautiful countryside.”
Research by Keep Britain Tidy suggests the country is getting grubbier, with 30 million tons of litter dropped every year and £500million spent annually cleaning up the streets.