Small Victories Being Won in the Continuing War Against Fly-Tipping

Published on: 7 Oct, 2020
Updated on: 9 Oct, 2020

An example of fly-tipping in Ash

By Martin Giles

and Julie Armstrong

local democracy reporter

The fight is beginning to turn against the scourge of fly-tipping that has scarred the Surrey countryside, particularly during pandemic restrictions.

In Ash, the Joint Enforcement Team (JET), a partnership of borough and parish councils with police, scored a series of victories in August. Six people paid penalties totalling £1,200, two were given legal warnings and one was cleared.

Since then, fly-tipping has been much reduced, said GBC Cllr James Steel (Lib Dem, Westborough). “There is absolutely no excuse for fly-tipping,” he added. “It is a crime that has a profound effect on our environment and wildlife. It is completely unacceptable, and we will continue to use our enforcement powers to reduce this illegal behaviour and keep our borough clean.”

Further afield, Reigate and Banstead Borough Council (RBBC) are using mobile CCTV to capture footage of fly-tippers in the act, issuing £4,000 in fines so far this year.

After 720 reports of fly-tipping, RBBC had to clear up more than 1,200 transit vans’ worth of discarded rubbish in the past six months. “A shocking statistic,” said Morag Williams, head of neighbourhood operations at RBBC.

Cllr Natalie Bramhall (Con, Redhill West and Wray Common) told a Surrey County Council meeting that car-park “bring” sites with recycling bins for everything from unwanted clothing to glass bottles, were overflowing with dumped household items, garden waste and sacks of non-recyclable refuse.

Now Waverley Borough Council (WBC) is closing all their bring sites. “They were just becoming dumps for people to put all sorts of rubbish beside the bins,” said WBC councillor Andy Macleod (Farnham Residents). “They just weren’t working.”

A WBC spokesman said some recycling items people had made the effort bring ended up in landfill.

He added: “We decided to phase out the sites to help reduce our costs­, including additional costs by having to deal with fly-tipping and contaminated recycling at the sites.”

All the recyclables taken there are now accepted in blue wheelie bins, except for textiles and small electrical items.

These are now the only items accepted at the bring sites and after they are included in the kerbside collections in the next few weeks, all the Waverley bring sites will close.

Fly-tipping can cost anything from a £400 fixed penalty notice to a £50,000 fine or 12-month jail sentence if convicted in a magistrates’ court.

In many cases, the owner of the waste has been fined rather than the dodgy builder who dumped it, because they are the ones identifiable when the waste is checked for evidence.

The legal obligation falls on the owner to ensure they check the builder is registered, at www.gov.uk/find-registered-waste-carrier or 03708 506 506.

More information about getting rid of your waste and bulky waste collections can be found here www.guildford.gov.uk/article/16736/Household-recycling-and-waste.

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