Shocking figures have been released showing how severe the fly-tipping pandemic in the U.K truly is. The government has vowed to clamp down on fly-tipping as new data has shown that it has increased 38 per cent in England since 2010. This rise has been accompanied by declining levels of enforcement against offenders from local authorities with fines last year only averaging £2.50 per offender.
The new data compares to 820,000 incidents in 2010 according to local authority data analysed by campaign group Unchecked UK. Nearly half of incidents were related to household waste including white goods, clinical waste, and animal carcasses. The government has said they will clamp down on fly tipping which costs the country £392 million a year to clear up and have introduced plans that will ensure that households will no longer have to pay to get rid of DIY wastes at local tips.
According to the data fly-tipping is a particularly big problem on the country’s waterways where it has risen by 76 percent. It has also nearly doubled on footpaths and bridleways. Countryside groups have reported repeated dumping in nature reserves and beauty spots which costs them hundreds of thousands of pounds to clear up.
The Wildlife Trusts, which runs nature reserves across the country, argue that fly-tipping is a lethal threat to wildlife and grazing livestock. “Fly-tipping is disgraceful and causes big problems for wildlife, as well as costing a fortune to clean up,” said Barnaby Coupe, land use policy manager for The Wildlife Trusts. “It is heart-breaking whenever our nature reserves are targeted.”
The National Trust said it had cleaned up more than a hundred fly-tipping incidents this year, mostly from small vans or tipper trucks, which could pose a threat to visitors with dogs.
While lockdown closures of tips and skips exacerbated the problem, industry experts say councils are failing to tackle offenders, with many criminal operators simply “pricing in” minimal fines. While 70 per cent of fly-tipping incidents led to some kind of enforcement 10 years ago, that figure is now just 40 per cent. There has been just one prosecution for every 471 fly-tipping incidents in the last year, Unchecked UK found, and nearly three-quarters of incidents were not investigated by local enforcers last year.
At Kingdom Local Authority support we are passionate about stopping fly tipping and helping councils to educate and enforce when it comes to this huge issue. To find about more about the range of products and services we can offer to help your local authority then get in touch with us today – John.Roberts@lasupport.co.uk
