Calls for tougher fines on fly-tipping in Stratford and south Warwickshire
TOUGHER fines for fly-tipping is the only way to punish those who dump waste on roads and in the countryside.
Both the NFU and The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) have called for harsher penalties for people who break the law by disposing of their waste only for someone else to clear it up and pay for the cost of doing so.
George Bostock, NFU Warwickshire county adviser, said: “The clean-up costs on private land and farmland can run to thousands of pounds and on council-owned land it will also be significant.
“The NFU would like to see our politicians, the Environment Agency, police, local authorities, and farmers continue to work together to tackle the problem, with a more consistent approach across the whole country.
“Currently 95 per cent of fines given to offenders caught fly-tipping are lower than the cost of hiring a skip.”
In addition to the clean-up cost, there’s a contamination cost to the countryside which Alderminster farmer, Mark Meadows, Warwickshire NFU chairman says is a health risk.
“Everyone values the benefits the Warwickshire countryside brings, and none of us want it blighted by huge amounts of rubbish being strewn across fields and on the sides of rural roads.
“Dumped waste is often very costly and time consuming to remove, dangerous to human health and harmful to wildlife and livestock.
“In some cases, fly-tipped rubbish pollutes watercourses and contaminates land.”
New figures recently released by DEFRA show 1.09 million fly-tipping incidents on public land were reported to local councils in 2021/2022 with more than 80,000 incidents in the West Midlands.
The CLA, which has a membership of around 27,000 rural businesses and landowners across England and Wales believes these figures only represent half of the story.
It says the figures only account for waste that has been dumped illegally on public land and does not include incidents which have occurred on privately-owned land. Causing significant financial burden and environmental impact to the land or business owner, this highlights the need for change within the current fining and imprisonment laws.
Midlands regional director, Sophie Dwerryhouse says: “These figures barely show the full extent of this crime which is having a devastating effect on the rural economy and communities. The system needs to be inclusive of private land and business owners so that the true extent of this issue can be evaluated and dealt with.
The perpetrators have little or no consideration of the effect of their actions, with no thought about the impact of their crime on the environment, wildlife and landowners who have the financial burden of removing their waste.
The penalties for fly-tipping, which are rarely enforced, need to be tougher to help remove this eyesore on our beautiful countryside.”
However, there’s better news for Stratford and south Warwickshire where the number of reported cases of fly tipping has gone down, according to Stratford District Council.
A spokesperson said: “Fly tipping is anti-social and criminal behaviour carried out by people who don’t care about our environment and countryside and cannot be bothered to dispose of their own waste properly. By dumping it they make it someone else’s problem and cost.
As a district our fly tipping figures are actually very low compared nationally.
The type of fly tipping waste varies but includes tyres, oil drums, construction or builders waste, commercial waste, black bags and drug related waste.
Between April and December last year we had 41 incidents of fly tipped household waste in black bags as compared to 81 in 2021 (April to December), the previous year.
Total number of fly tips has also fallen in the first three quarters of this municipal year (April 1st 2022 to March 31st 2023). 295 in 2022/23 compared with 357 in 2021/22
Each fly tip costs us a minimum of £201.26 to collect although this increases according to the size of the tip and does not include the officer time reporting and recording the instances and arranging for them to be collected.
In most cases fly tipping occurs on the highway.”
Cllr Bill Fleming, portfolio holder for environment and climate change, said: "It is very disappointing indeed that people blight our open spaces with their waste.
"I urge the public to help us combat this behaviour and report any incidents that they see. We will prosecute if we have enough evidence.”
Figures released by DEFRA show the cost of clearance to local authorities in England in 2021/22 was £10.7 million.
Fly-tipping carries a fine of up to £400. The fly-tipping of controlled waste is a serious criminal offence which carries a fine of up to £50,000 or an offender may face a prison sentence.
