Flytipping

• Yet again the South West maintains it's position and continues to have the lowest number of flytipping incidents out of all the English regions, with 3.4% of the national total.
• Further, there is good news in that there were 39,639 Local Authority recorded incidents in 2008/2009 compared to 45,419 incidents reported by the region's local authorities in 2007/2008 a reduction of 12.7%.
• Clearing these flytips cost the region £2,383,244 compared to £2,572,986 in 2007/2008 a 7% reduction however this saving is not a true reflection of the 13% reduction in overall numbers indicating that disposal costs are increasing in relative terms.
• The number of Prosecution actions nearly doubled to 101 in 2008/2009 however this represents only 0.25% of all reported incidents across the region – 6 custodial sentences resulted from these prosecutions and 97% were successful in gaining a conviction.
• Disturbingly 58% of all fly tipping in the region can be attributed to household waste, there has not been any noticeable improvement in household waste ‘dumping’ over last year figures! 
• Over 10,200 of the 39,639 incidents involved ‘black bag’ fly tipping.
• The most common size of fly-tips (30.7%) occurred within the car boot load or less category followed by small van load (29.6%) and single item (17.1%).
• At a local authority level, yet again the highest total number of reported fly tipping incidents occurred in Plymouth, with 6,104  when compared with the previous years total of 8,155  it is a large improvement of some 25% but Plymouth still accounts for 15.4% of the regional total. This was followed by Bristol with 5,526 in 2008/2009 compared with 5,687 in 2007/2008 also a reduction, but of only 2.8% which is lower than the overall regional percentage reduction of 13%.

Fly-tipping is the illegal dumping of waste it is a crime in law, and also socially unacceptable in today’s society.

All kinds of waste are fly-tipped, the most common being household waste. Other wastes that are fly-tipped include appliances like fridge's and washing machines, (2,142 ‘white goods’ incidents in 2008/2009), waste from building and demolition work (2,649 in 2008/2009), animal carcasses (882 incidents in 2008/2009), vehicle parts and tyres (2,707 in 2008/2009). Hazardous wastes such as oil, asbestos sheeting and chemicals are also dumped illegally and can result in serious toxic pollution.

Over the last few years, the measurement and scale of the extent of fly tipping, or illegal waste disposal, in England has improved following the release and use of Section 55(5) of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003. This Act allowed Defra to require waste collection authorities and the Environment Agency to submit regular data on the types and quantities of fly-tipping with which they deal, now giving us an improved evidence base, enabling Authorities to target areas of concern.

Flycapture is a web-based database of fly tipping incidents that went live in April 2004. It contains information on fly tipping incidents, action taken and a vehicle registration hot-list that is encouraging joint working between authorities. The database is enabling both central and local government to demonstrate the true nature and scale of fly tipping. This data gathering methodology and system is helping to develop more effective, targeted evidence based policies and strategies.

Local authorities are continuing to develop and strengthen their capacity to take the appropriate enforcement action against anti-social fly-tippers.

National perspective

Yet again the South West maintains it's position and continues to have the lowest number of flytipping incidents out of all the English regions, with 3.4% of the national total.  A total of over 1.16 million flytipping incidents were reported by local authorities in England between April 2008 and March 2009, a 9% reduction from 2007/2008.

• 50% of all fly-tips cleared by local authorities occurred on the highway.

• 57% of all fly-tips cleared by local authorities were recorded as being in the car boot load or less or the small van load categories.

• 63% of fly-tips dealt with by local authorities involved household waste (recorded under the two Flycapture categories of household black bags and other household waste).

Nationally the estimated cost of clearance of illegally dumped waste reported by local authorities in this period was £54.9 million. This does not always indicate a direct cost to the taxpayer as some authorities have mitigated this cost through their waste framework contracts.

54,200 inspections carried out by local authorities to check for compliance with the waste duty of care.

2,000 prosecutions were carried out in 2008-09, of which 97% achieved a successful outcome.

Local authorities report that 50.2% of all fly-tips in 2008-09 occurred on the highway and that 34% occurred on council land and footpaths and bridle ways.

The most common size of fly-tips occur within the ‘car boot or less’category.

The role of the Environment Agency

The Environment Agency (EA) has a very important role in dealing with fly-tipping, dealing mainly with the larger illegal dumping incidents – termed as 'Big, Bad and Nasty'.  Most of these illegal dumps are bigger than a ‘tipper load’.

Incidents involving organised crime and drummed hazardous waste can involve multiple incidents less than a tipper load in size. The EA also submits data to the Flycapture database.

The Environment Agency dealt with a total of 676 illegal waste dumping incidents (a drop from 700 in 2007-08) 

Estimated to have cost the Environment Agency £ 96,000 to clear up incidents of illegally dumped waste

The Environment Agency took 169 prosecutions forward in relation to illegal waste activities, resulting in over £ 800,000 in fines (the total fines awarded have doubled since 2007-8.The Environment Agency continues to investigate and enforce increasingly serious and more organised waste crimes and this is reflected in the penalties awarded by the Courts). 

Average fine per prosecution was £6,000 where a fine was the outcome  (this has doubled since 2007-08) 

The Environment Agency prosecutes about 25% of the incidents it investigates.

Offenders found guilty of waste crime offences taken by the Environment Agency have received a range of penalties from custodial sentences, curfew orders and had in some cases had their assets seized. 

South West

Local Authorities in the South West report that they had dealt with 39,639 incidents of fly-tipping, an 12.7% decrease from 2007-08. 

• 59% of all recorded fly-tips occurred on the highway. 

• 60% of all fly-tips were recorded as being in the car boot or small van load size categories. 

• 58% of fly-tips dealt with by local authorities involved household waste (recorded under the two Flycapture categories of household black bags and other household waste).

The estimated cost of clearance of illegally dumped waste reported by local authorities in this period was £2.4 million. This does not always indicate a direct cost to the taxpayer as some authorities have mitigated this cost through their waste framework contracts. 

1,400 inspections were carried out by local authorities to check for compliance with the waste duty of care2. 

101 prosecutions were carried out in 2008-09, of which 98%achieved a successful outcome.

The most common size of fly-tips (30.7%) occurred within the car boot load or less category followed by small van load (29.6%) and single item (17.1%).

Cost of Fly-tipping

The estimated cost of clearance of illegally dumped waste reported by local authorities in this period was £2.4 million. This does not always indicate a direct cost to the taxpayer as some authorities mitigate this cost through their waste framework contracts. 

Actions taken against Fly-tipping in the South West region

Local authorities increased their enforcement actions in 2008-09 by 23.4%over 2007-08.

It is estimated that local authorities spent £608,000 on enforcement action against fly-tipping in 2008-09.

Authorities issued 3,700 warning letters, 1,300 statutory notices and 65 formal cautions in response to fly-tipping incidents in 2008-09.

Local authorities also carried out 101 prosecutions in 2008-09, of which 98%achieved a successful outcome. 

• Full results for each local authority in England and summary regional reports is available on the Defra website.

• The Environment Agency also has detailed information on flytipping incidents.