Fly-tipping crisis as bin collections fall

Higher fees to use tips and council cuts blamed for record levels of dumping found in some areas

FLY-TIPPING has reached “crisis levels” with infrequent rubbish collections partly to blame, an investigation has found.

In some council regions, incidents of fly-tipping rose by more than a fifth year on year, according to figures from freedom of information requests.

In Haringey, north London, there were nearly 40,000 reported incidents of waste being dumped illegally be- tween November 2015 and December 2016. In Manchester, the figure was over 30,000, or 77 per day, numbers obtained by ITV News showed.

The problem has been attributed to changes to services at local tips, with many councils putting up fees and cutting opening hours, or closing them altogether, as well as changes to household dustbin collections.

Councils have been reducing the frequency of bin collections, both to save money and to encourage recycling. In some parts of the UK, general waste is only collected every four weeks.

Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “Flytipping is an epidemic. It’s reached crisis levels and something needs to be done about it. Local authorities are overwhelmed with instances of criminal fly-tipping and we need to address this urgently.”

In some parts of the country the number of incidents went down and in Birmingham the figure dropped by 13 per cent. However, there were still 21,000 offences recorded, or 53 per day, putting Britain’s second largest city at number three in the list of the worst areas for fly-tipping of the 264 councils that responded to the request.

Councils say the cost of clearing up the illegally dumped waste is diverting money away from crucial services such as social care for the elderly.

Nigel Murphy, executive member for neighbourhood services at Manchester City Council, told ITV News: “It costs us just over £100 per tonne before we take into account the staffing costs for doing that … that’s money that’s not going into services like adult social care, on to children, on to neighbourhoods in general which could be better improving the environment.

“We’re now having to spend it on clearing up people’s rubbish.”

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said waste crime costs the economy millions of pounds a year in clean-up costs.

The Government announced tougher penalties last year for offenders, with councils given powers to issue on-thespot penalties of up to £400.

However, it is difficult for offenders to be caught and prosecuted.

In 2016, the Woodland Trust recorded its worst year on record for flytipping and littering, but it took just one suspect to court. The offender was ordered to pay £200 compensation for leaving a coffee table, mattress, bed frame and children’s playhouse at Little Wold Plantation in Yorkshire.

The charity said its annual rubbish clearance costs have increased by 264 per cent since 2010, with the bill reaching £354,031 over the past six years.