Less than 1% prosecuted in over 40,000 fly-tipping cases

Sep 10 2010 by Kim Carmichael, The Journal

“We highlight the nuisance it causes, the potential to pollute watercourses and contaminate land as well as the risk it presents to grazing livestock. It is difficult to get the Government to take action.”

Regionally, Newcastle suffered the most incidents of fly-tipping at 19,295. There were 7,348 cases in County Durham and 1,756 in Northumberland.

Newcastle City Council prosecuted the most offenders, with 92 successful cases last year. Only eight prosecutions were successful in Northumberland and two areas of the region saw now successful prosecutions at all.

Environment Minister Lord Henley said: “We’re encouraged by the efforts being made by local authorities to tackle fly-tipping but there is no room for complacency. A total of nearly 947,000 incidents is unacceptable by any standards and fly-tipping is clearly still a significant problem. We must all work together to stamp out this continuing blight on our neighbourhoods.”

The Flycapture database was set up in 2004 allowing local authorities to record the number of fly-tipping incidents on public land within their area each month, along with the enforcement actions taken. Stephen Savage, Newcastle City Council’s director of regulatory services and public protection, said: “The city council regards environmental crime as a priority because of its detrimental effect on neighbourhoods.

“Recorded incidents of fly tipping increased as a result of the authority’s diligence in recording and dealing with these issues particularly in the city centre and residential streets.

“During 2009/2010 the city council prosecuted in respect of more than 100 fly tipping incidents and served more than 650 notices for littering and other recordable offences of fly tipping.”