LGA calls on Government to work with councils to ensure fly-tipping offenders face tougher fines

The Local Government Association (LGA) has said that tougher sentences are needed to deter fly-tipping, as court fines for the offence averaged just £335 in 2020/21.

Research by the LGA found that for the year 2020/21, local authorities in England dealt with 1.13 million fly-tipping incidents, an increase of 16 per cent from the 980,000 reported in 2019/20. The LGA estimates that fly-tipping costs councils more than £50 million a year to clear up.

A deliberate fly-tipping offence designated to incur ‘minor’ environmental harm should lead to a fine with a starting point of Band F, which is 600 per cent of weekly earnings. Based on average UK earnings, this should amount to over £3,606.

However, the LGA has found that fly-tippers prosecuted in court for the worst waste dumping offences were handed an average fine of just £335 in 2020/21.

The report outlined two recent cases as examples of lenient sentencing.

In Weymouth, a man was issued a fixed penalty notice of £400 for fly tipping on the side of a road. After no payment was received, Dorset Council’s Waste Enforcement and Legal Team officers were left with little option but to prosecute him, “using up their limited time and resources to do so”.

The man was fined only £150 plus costs of £300 and £29 compensation, since he was receiving benefits and spent 24 hours in custody.

In Sissinghurst, Kent, a woman was ordered to pay a fine of just £200 after failing to pay her £400 fixed penalty notice.

Analysis of latest figures by the LGA showed that average fines issued by courts following criminal proceedings averaged at £65 less than the £400 fixed penalty notice councils can issue as a civil action.

The LGA has called on the Government to work with councils on reviewing guidance to the courts to ensure the worst offenders face tougher fines, and to ensure councils have the funding needed to investigate and prosecute fly-tippers.

Councils have said they want courts to look at fly-tipping as an offence first, rather than at the individual and their ability to pay.

They also ask for more use of suspended sentences, or custodial sentences for anyone convicted of a second fly-tipping offence.

Cllr David Renard, environment spokesperson at the LGA, said: “Fly-tipping is criminal activity and is a blight on our public spaces. The individuals responsible for it must be held accountable and prosecuted.

“We support the Government’s investment in CCTV in fly-tipping hotspots, but without higher fines for the worst-kind of offences, criminals will remain undeterred.

“Magistrates need new sentencing guidelines for fly-tipping, to make court action more worthwhile for councils and in turn, reduce fly-tipping in our communities.”