It's a start - First fall in fly-tips for four years

Defra has recorded a decrease of 1% in fly-tipping incidents for 2017-18 against the previous year, as the number of council fixed penalty notices shoots up.

This reverses a trend for annual increases seen every year since 2013-14.

The figures showed that incidents involving household waste declined by 4% and those on highways by 7%.

Local authority enforcement actions increased by 4%, while the number of fixed penalty notices issued by councils went up by 20%.

Defra figures identified 997,553 incidents, against 1,011,199 in 2016-17.

The most common size of fly-tip was a small van load, of which there were 323,366 cases, followed by 270,291 defined as ‘a car boot or less’.

More than half of incidents involved household waste defined as either ‘black bag’ – 182,921 cases – or ‘other’ at 472,596.

A Defra spokesperson said the figures showed its ”tough actions to crack down on fly-tippers” were delivering results. It is the first time no increase in the number of incidents has been recorded in five years.

“Councils are using powers to hand out on-the-spot fines to fly-tippers to good effect, and we have made it easier for vehicles suspected of being used for fly-tipping to be stopped, searched and seized.”

But Defra added that the involvement of serious and organised criminal gangs in the waste sector appeared to be increasing.

Environment secretary Michael Gove commissioned an independent review into organised crime in the waste sector, which was published last week with recommendations to be considered as part of the forthcoming resources and waste strategy.