Councils urged to take zero tolerance policy on fly tipping

GMB London has urged the the government and local authorities to take a policy of zero tolerance with action against fly tipping, which is costing £4,339,536 to clear.

Statistics show that there were 1,002,154 fly-tipping incidents between 2016-2017, costing £57,667,483 to clear.

Regionally, there were 75,447 incidents of fly-tipping in East of England in 2016-2017, accumulating a total clearing cost of £4,339,536. Of this, Peterborough was the council with the most fly-tipping incidents, with 8,186, with accumulated clearing costs of £461,285. There were also vert high incident rates in Great Yarmouth, Norwich, Luton and Stevenage.

Warren Kenny, GMB regional secretary, said: “Government and local councils have to be more proactive in dealing with fly tipping as new figures show that in England in 2016/17 there were over a million incidents and cost £57,667,483 to clear. There needs to be better education on the costs of dealing with the problem and how people can dispose of rubbish and unwanted items properly.

“Councils must invest in easy to access recycling and disposal facilities for residents to use and offer accessible collection schemes for bulk items. Finally, councils have to firmly clamp down on fly tipping by larger fines, investment in surveillance equipment and rigorous investigation of incidents and follow up action. Some councils have a poor record on this which encourages an attitude of impunity. We need a policy of zero tolerance with action against fly tipping on all fronts at all times.”