Number of fly-tipping incidents tackled by councils falls 4% in 2012/13

The number of fly-tipping incidents tackled by local authorities in 2012/13 fell 4% to over 711,000 incidents, according to statistics issued by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Recorded fly-tipping incidents have fallen steadily since 2007/08, when there were 1.27m cases.

Defra also reported that:

• The estimated cost of clearance of fly-tipping to local authorities in England in 2012/13 was £36.4m, a nearly 3% reduction over 2011/12.
• Local authorities carried out more than 425,000 enforcement actions in 2012/13, a 13% reduction over 2011/12. The estimated cost of enforcement actions was £15.2m, £2.5m less than the previous year.
• There were more than 2,200 prosecutions, 99% of which resulted in a conviction. The number of prosecutions is down 22% from 2,800 in 2011/12.
• Local authorities issued more than 72,000 warning letters and 32,000 statutory notices. They also carried out nearly 48,000 duty of care inspections in 2012/13.
• Over two thirds of incidents involved household waste. Nearly 45% of all fly-tips occurred on highways. Most fly-tips consisted of a small van load of material or less.
• Incidents of fly-tipping on footpaths, bridleways and back alleyways increased by 10%. Together these now accounted for 20% of fly-tipping incidents.

The Department suggested that the downward trend in fly-tipping incidents could reflect a number of possible factors.

“Local authorities may have put more effort into enforcement and/or raising awareness of fly-tipping issues,” it said.

Defra added: “The Environment Agency has worked with authorities to improve reporting quality and has produced guidance to reduce the possibility of double counting in authority returns. This can occur for example when an incident is recorded at the point a local authority is notified and also by a waste management contractor who clears up the fly-tip.”

Cllr Mike Jones, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Housing and Environment Board, said: “We welcome the news that councils’ continued efforts have led to another fall in fly-tipping incidents.

“The cost of clearance and prosecutions is high. Given the cuts to local authority budgets it would be helpful if councils could be freed up to focus their resources on continuing to reduce fly-tipping incidents rather than spending their time reporting to government while mired in expensive prosecutions."

Cllr Jones said the LGA thought that a new fixed penalty notice should be established for small scale fly-tipping. This would enable councils to act quickly to curb the problem and prevent the "longwinded and expensive" process of taking prosecutions through the courts.

“We’re also asking why councils need to report fly-tipping data monthly when it’s only released by government annually?," he said. "If the reporting frequency was reduced to once a year it would save councils tens of thousands of pounds.”

Earlier this month the Environment Agency revealed that it stopped illegal waste activity on 1,279 sites in 2012/13, up 70% on the previous year.

The rise was attributed in part to the agency’s investment in a dedicated taskforce.