Flytipping has hit a record high – up 16 per cent on last year to 1.13 million cases – which threatens to ‘turn Britain into a giant rubbish dump,’ Government figures have revealed.
Authorities have not used their legal power to prevent the destruction of cities, towns and the countryside. The number of fines has fallen by half to 1,313, from 2,672 last year.
While the government stated that March 2020’s first national lockdown had affected local recycling programs, authorities claimed that closing courts has reduced prosecution activity.
London was home to 43 cases of fly-tipping for every 1,000 residents, while the North East had 31. Ten incidents were recorded in the South West.
Allison Ogden-Newton, of Keep Britain Tidy, said the figures were ‘disappointing’ and called for more to be done to stop flytippers ‘trying to turn our country into one giant rubbish dump’.
According to government figures, fly-tipping cases in England increased by 16% but fines handed out by courts to offenders dropped by over half.
The number of court fines issues dropped by 51 per cent to just 1,313, from 2,672 in2019/2020 – with the total value of the fines decreasing by 62 per cent to £440,000 from £1.2 million last year.
The number of enforcement actions taken by councils dropped by 4% to 456,000
From 75,400 in the previous year, fixed penalty notices decreased by 24 percent to 57.600.
A small van load (34%) was the most popular type of trash to be disposed of. This account accounted for 34% of all total cases. The car boot load accounted for 26%.
Around 39,000 tons of dump waste was considered enough for a full-size tipper truck.
Clearing up the large fly-tipping incidents cost councils in England £11.6 million, up from £10.9 million the previous year.
National Trust volunteers, rangers and volunteer were pictured clearing the rubbish left behind in a stream on Marsden Moor.
Country Land and Business Association, which represents rural businesses throughout England and Wales, thinks the figures don’t really tell all the truth, since they are limited to fly-tipping in public land.
Mark Tufnell, president of the CLA, said: ‘Local authorities tend not to get involved with clearing incidences of fly-tipped waste from private land, leaving the landowner to clean up and foot what is often an extortionate bill.’
He added: ‘It’s not just the odd bin bag but large household items, from unwanted sofas to broken washing machines, building materials and even asbestos being dumped across our countryside.’