Countryside Management Association News

Minister for waste Joan Ruddock today urged local authorities to bring themselves up to the level of the best in tackling fly-tipping as she published new figures.

The Flycapture results for April 2006 to March 2007, show more fly-tipping incidents are being reported and more action is being taken to tackle them.

But Ms Ruddock stressed that, while this demonstrated increased vigilance, this was only the first stage in tackling the issue.

The results, covering 354 English authorities, show an increase in incidents over the past year, however, nearly half of all cases reported came from Liverpool City Council.

Key results include:

 Local Authorities in England reported that they had dealt with more than 2.6 million incidents of fly-tipping – up five per cent on 2005-06. 1,289,410 incidents were reported by Liverpool City Council.
 Enforcement action taken by local authorities, excluding Liverpool City Council, increased by 46 per cent to 357,829 cases. The figure for all authorities, including Liverpool City Council, was 16 per cent.
 Half of all fly-tips recorded involved single black bags and it is estimated that the majority of these occurred in back alleys and involved waste placed out for collection incorrectly, primarily in Liverpool. However, when Liverpool City Council is excluded, 48 per cent of all recorded fly-tips occurred on the highway and 53 per cent of fly-tips were of a car boot or small van load in size.
 77 per cent of fly-tips involved household waste - a 5.4 per cent increase on 2005-06. Once Liverpool City Council is excluded, 56 per cent of all fly-tips involve household waste - a 10 per cent increase on 2005-06.

Ms Ruddock said:

“Despite some good progress over the past year – including more reporting and more enforcement - there is far too much fly-tipping blighting our streets and countryside. It’s not acceptable, councils must do more to tackle it.

“Councils as diverse as Sheffield, Worthing and Milton Keynes are driving down fly-tipping through targeted, concerted action. I want other councils to follow their lead.

“Government has a role to play in this by continuing to provide and update the tools and guidance to enable action to be taken. And the public and businesses must also play a part by reporting incidents and dealing with their waste responsibly.

“In short, we can only clean up our streets by all working together.”

The Government published its Waste Strategy for England 2007 in May, which set out a blueprint for not only recycling and reusing waste, but also preventing it in the first place. The strategy makes it clear that initiatives to boost recycling should be supported by fly-tipping strategies aimed at preventing the illegal dumping of waste.

Decisions about the most appropriate household waste collection services are a matter for local authorities, not central Government.

Work Government is carrying out to help tackle fly-tipping includes:

 Reviewing legislation on the controls that are in place to deal with the management and carriage of waste. The review aims to reduce levels of fly-tipping, make it easier for businesses to understand and comply with the regulations and make them easier for local authorities to use.
 Developing legislation that will give local authorities and the Environment Agency the powers to stop, search and instantly seize vehicles being used to commit fly-tipping offences.
 Working to better understand how small businesses and householders deal with waste and the types of awareness raising campaigns that would most effectively reach these groups.
 Continuing to fund the Environment Agency’s targeted campaigns to disseminate good practice to businesses and raise awareness of good waste management practices.
 Funding the Environment Agency to develop Flycapture Enforcement, a training programme aimed at local authority officers and their legal teams to increase knowledge of the relevant legislation and to develop skills in effective enforcement and prosecution of fly-tipping. Environmental charity, ENCAMs and the Chartered Institution of Waste Management (CIWM) have joined up to co-ordinate the delivery of the package throughout England and Wales.

Other points from the Flycapture statistics include:

 It is estimated that local authorities are spending £24.6 million on enforcement action against fly-tipping. Excluding Liverpool City Council, the figure is £17.8 million. This is the first year that data on enforcement spend have been available.
 Excluding Liverpool City Council, fly tips of commercial waste black bags have fallen by 10 per cent on 2005–06 from 59,630 to 53,566.
 The number of inspections carried out by local authorities to check that businesses are dealing with their waste responsibility has increased from 12,450 in 2005-06 to 25,745 in 2006-07.
 Local authorities carried out 1,371 prosecutions in 2006-07, of which 94 per cent achieved a successful outcome.
 93 per cent of fly-tipping takes place in predominantly urban authorities where 63 per cent of people in England live. Excluding Liverpool City Council, 88 per cent of fly-tipping takes place in predominantly urban authorities.

Notes to editors

1. Full Flycapture results for 2006/07, broken down by local authority area, are available at: www.defra.gov.uk/environment/localenv/flytipping/flycapture.htm

2. Flycapture is the national database of fly-tipping incidents and enforcement action that was set up by Defra, the Environment Agency and the Local Government Association to record the incidents and cost of illegally dumped waste dealt with by local authorities.

3. 323 local authorities in England (91 per cent) entered 12 separate monthly returns to the Flycapture database between April 2006 and March 2007 and 345 authorities (97 per cent) submitted at least 10 monthly returns in this period. This represents an increase for the third consecutive year and reinforces the successful uptake and use of the database as a management information source.

4. The Environment Agency is responsible for dealing with more serious cases of illegal waste disposal. Data from illegal dumping dealt with by the Environment Agency is currently being analysed and will be published in due course.

5. A recent survey by the Environment Agency reveals 48 per cent of businesses have introduced practical measures to reduce environmental harm, an increase of 17 per cent on 2005. Further details can be found at:
http://www.netregs.gov.uk/commondata/acrobat/smenvironment07uk_1856733.pdf .

6. The Government’s action plan on illegal waste activity is included at Annex F to its Waste Strategy for England 2007. Details can be found at:

www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/strategy/strategy07/index.htm
7. Examples of good practice in tackling fly-tipping among local authorities include:

London Borough of Islington

Islington has seen a 47 per cent reduction in fly-tipping incidents in 2006-07 from 8,812 to 4,610. The council increased inspection and monitoring of fly-tip hotspots, used data from Flycapture to deal with specific problems of commercial and bulky waste and launched a communications drive with local residents. It also restructured its street environment team for maximum effectiveness.

Milton Keynes Council (South East)

Milton Keynes has seen a 35 per cent reduction in fly-tipping incidents in 2006-07 from 3,511 to 2,252. Staff numbers on the enforcement team have increased, Flycapture data has been used to identify hotspots and covert surveillance has been carried out at them, leading to prosecutions, penalty notices and cautions. Opening hours have also been extended at civic amenity sites.

Sheffield City Council

Sheffield has seen a 33 per cent reduction in fly-tipping incidents in 2006-07 from 161,898 to 108,884. Following data showing that hot spots were appearing on housing estates, the council subsequently revised collection arrangements in areas of high density housing. In particular, a “red bag” scheme was introduced, offering students additional refuse collection at the end of term. The council has also worked with South Yorkshire Police and the Environment Agency on stop and search operations and wider rogue trader operations.

Worthing Borough Council (South East)

Worthing has seen a 33 per cent reduction in fly-tipping incidents in 2006-07 from 2,248 to 1,484. Following data showing that fly-tipping problems were centred around household black bag waste in or around properties with poor storage, the council installed street bins for these properties and issued residents with notices requiring them to use the bins. Checks were carried out with all businesses in the surrounding areas to ensure that commercial waste was not dumped in the bins.

Page published: 09 October 2007