Fly tippers are more likely to be fined in Scunthorpe than the majority of England, but last year it only happened on average once every 114 times.
Just 13 fines were issued across a whole year, when there was an average of four fly tipping incidents a day in North Lincolnshire. The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has produced a league table ranking councils on how ‘muscular’ their approach is to fly-tipping.
Based on 2021/22 figures, the table still places North Lincolnshire Council in the upper half of councils carrying out enforcement. Its 13 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) issued is, though, far behind neighbouring North East Lincolnshire Council’s 84.
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The council leader has said it will not tolerate littering or fly tipping. North Lincolnshire Council also took alternative enforcement action against fly tipping on 127 occasions.
This includes cautions, stop and searches, and even the potential seizure of vehicles. There were 1,476 incidents of fly tipping in and around Scunthorpe in 2021/22, meaning a fine was issued on average for one in every 114 incidents.
Councils had the power last year to issue a maximum FPN fine of £400, but since July, that has been raised to £1,000. North Lincolnshire Council came out early to say it will use its new fine powers.
The council’s Conservative leader, Cllr Rob Waltham, said: “I keep saying it and I will keep repeating it – we will not tolerate littering or fly-tipping anywhere in North Lincolnshire. If we catch people, we will fine them.
“The council spends more than £1m of taxpayers’ money every year cleaning up after irresponsible people, that is simply not good enough, but we will keep going until we eradicate it.
“With the Government recently increasing the fines we can give out for fly-tipping to £1,000, it might start sinking in now and people may finally start being responsible – I make no apologies for charging people who drop litter or fly-tip, they should bear the cost of cleaning up.”
Fly tipping was a hot topic at local elections in May, with Labour campaigning for fly-tipping clean-up squads, with offenders required to pick up their litter.
Across England, fly tipping incidents rose by a third between 2010 and 2022, to almost 1,100,000 reported incidents. In the same period, the number of fines issued increased by 176 per cent.
DEFRA’s league table also highlights 42 councils in England that did not issue any fines at all in 2021/22, despite recording more than 50,000 fly-tipping incidents between them.
Seven of those councils did not take enforcement action of any kind.
Original artice: https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/all-about/scunthorpe
