Fly-tippers linked to crime gangs as public urged to join the fight

THE public have been urged to help local councils fight the menace of fly-tipping, amid rising offending levels UK-wide and links to organised crime.

It has been claimed that gangs are using lock-cutting tools to break into private land and tip vast quantities of waste that can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to clear, and bogus waste companies had rented buildings or land to dump lorry loads of rubbish.

In some instances criminals went to great lengths to disguise their activities, compacting the waste into plastic wrapping, taking it to open land and building it into haystack shapes.

The warning was sounded by the Countryside Alliance, and although it is areas such as Manchester and London that have been hardest hit, local residents have been asked to be vigilant.

Deputy Hampshire County Council leader Cllr Rob Humby said people being prepared to help could be key, adding: “I would urge all Hampshire residents to be vigilant, report what they see, and know their legal duty when it comes to employing anyone to take their waste for them.”

The cabinet member for economy, transport and environment added: “Fly-tipping is not the result of a few individuals wanting to get rid of the odd mattress, unable to either organise a waste collection from their local council or take it to the household waste recycling Centres (HWRC) for free.

“These aren’t the sort of people who use a recycling centre, sorting out their cardboard from their electricals like most law-abiding citizens. It is predominantly organised crime on a national scale, with commentators highlighting the profits these criminal gangs are making.”

Statistics released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs show between April 2018 and March 2019 UK local authorities spent £12.9m – up from £12.2m the previous year – dealing with more than a million fly-tipping incidents. This is an increase of 8% on the year before.

Of those, nearly two thirds (62%) involved household waste, and the most common place for it to occur was on highways (pavements and roads), which accounted for 46%.

The most common size category was equivalent to a ‘small van load’ (33%), followed by the equivalent of a ‘car boot or less’ (30%) and local authorities carried out 499,000 enforcement actions – an increase of 5,000 actions (1%) on the year before.

Cllr Humby added: “These reports serve to highlight the extent of the criminal activity across the country, which can be devastating to our countryside.

“In Hampshire, we’ve established an effective collaboration with all our partner organisations involved in tackling fly-tipping, which is driving down the number of incidents on public land, encouraging people to report this criminal activity, and increasing prosecutions.”

Partner groups, such as the National Farmers Union and the Countryside Landowners Association, were urging their members to report fly-tipping on private land to local authorities, he added.

Cllr Humby continued: “Our focus has been on ensuring those committing fly-tipping crimes are vigorously pursued, while at the same time highlighting how important it is for residents and business owners thinking of using a third party for any clearance work to check that this party has a waste carrier licence issued by the Environment Agency.

“I want to emphasise that, in Hampshire, we have made it as easy as possible for people to dispose of waste responsibly, legally and conveniently.”

Most household waste can be taken for free to a Hampshire HWRC all year round except for Christmas, Boxing and New Year’s days, Cllr Humby pointed out. The only materials charged for – such as asbestos, plasterboard and rubble – were expensive to handle and dispose.

“On top of this, small businesses can use the HWRCs for a fee, and we will continue to allow residents from neighbouring counties to use the Hampshire sites for a £5 charge after 1st April, even though many of our neighbouring counties will no longer allow non-residents access,” he said.

For more information visit www.hants.gov.uk/wasteandrecycling/flytipping.