The Isle of Wight Council failed to issue a single fine for fly-tipping during 2019/20, despite more than 500 incidents being recorded including 4 involving asbestos.
Fly-tipping is the illegal deposit of any waste onto land that does not have a licence to accept it – commonly this is household or commercial rubbish being dumped at the side of the road and in fields.
Whilst most councils weigh in hard to prevent fly-tipping, it’s still an ever-growing issue that is yet to be stopped nationally.
According to the latest Government data, a total of 575 incidents of fly-tipping were recorded on the Island in 2019/20. Of those, 513 took place on the public highway, 38 on Council land, 19 on footpaths or bridleways, 5 near watercourses, 2 on private land and 1 on commercial land. However, the Isle of Wight Council issued 0 fixed penalty notices in relation to these illegal acts.
The data reveals the most common types of items to be dumped by Islanders with 411 incidents involving black bags or other household waste, 27 commercial waste, 25 construction/demolition, 27 green waste, 24 white goods, 20 other electrical, 14 tyre incidents, 12 vehicle parts, 6 clinical, 5 animal carcasses and 4 asbestos.
The Isle of Wight Council isn’t alone in its stance, with more than 80 local authorities also failing to issue fines for a total of 153,895 fly-tipping incidents recorded.
The local authority doing the most to tackle fly-tipping in their area is Islington in London, with 1,268 fixed penalty notices issued out of the reported 1,764 fly-tipping incidents (71.88%).
An Isle of Wight Council spokesperson told Island Echo:
“The council will investigate reports of flytipping and take action in line with the council’s neighbourhoods enforcement policy where evidence supports such action. Enforcement action could include a number of actions and not just fixed penalty notices.
“Finding the culprits who fly tip can be notoriously difficult and often there is a lack of evidence. It is a criminal offence to flytip and if you are seeking someone else to dispose of your waste you must use a licensed waste carrier.”
No need to fine anyone …. just put up our council tax problem solved …..
Let’s hope the new mix we have in place grow a pair and catch and fine them heavily….. I wait with baited breath !!!!!
Then hopefully they won’t keep ripping Joe Public off next year ??????????????.
The Council’s comments, created by some jobsworth, make you weep!
Don’t think you should be reporting that no fines given that will just encourage people to do it
Surely even a below par team,should have been able to track one of these fly tippers down. Christ.
For once I sympathise with the council. As the article says it must be very hard to identify the culprits, and harder still to catch them in the act.
not suprised the new councillors need to get on the case and get the tip open longer and make it easier to dump rubbish
Are we surprised by that headline. NO.
Let us use the dump instead of booking on a daily basis
don’t make it so difficult to dispose of rubbish then.
get the refuse collectors to take everything and have the tips open all day every day and will take everything at no charge.
The council don’t care if it is on private land as the landowner is responsible for clearing it up. In other words, the council don’t care. I contacted the council well over a week ago to express concern about the stuff that was being disposed of in green bins and asked why they didn’t lift to lids and check the contents. One of the bin men told me that they lift the lid to look for a black paper insert, if there is one they remove it if there isn’t, the whole lot gets tipped in the lorry. Last time they collect from our street, I found one green bin had the contents of a hoover bag tipped over the contents.
Quick too get our council tax off us too pay too clear it up though.
Lazy gits.how unfair not too see some fined.were all get summons for non payment of our money wasted tax huh
So why not? Oh I know, they will pay for the clean up operations by putting our Council Tax up again next year. Where are the consequences of fly tipping on this island. Heavy fines if caught. This must be applied
No fines,yet how many times have we seen video/photo’s on Facebook,police have been involved, names and vehicles identified yet council do nothing , soon issue fines if I take my child out of sch for holiday or over stay my parking for 10mins, hopefully the Greens will help.
Though it won’t stop all fly-tipping it is time to re-open the tips and make them easily accessible without having to book a slot.