New penalties will not turn back the rising tide of fly-tipping, environmental charity warns.
from today new fixed penalty notices will come into force, which will see people who illegally dump their rubbish fined between £150 and £400.
Keep Britain Tidy welcomes these new fines arguing they will give local authorities the power to deal with small-scale fly-tipping quickly and efficiently rather than going through the courts.
The charity, however, warns that more preventative action must be taken to deal with a problem that costs nearly £50m a year.
The latest statistics from the Government show that in 2014/15 local authorities in England dealt with 900,000 incidents of fly-tipping, an increase of 5.6% on the previous year.
Keep Britain Tidy chief executive Allison Ogden-Newton said: ‘The new Fixed Penalty Notices give local authorities a new weapon in their fight against the fly-tipping which is blighting our country.
‘We are delighted that the Government has listened to Keep Britain Tidy and to the local authorities who have been calling for this change to the law.
‘However, more work is needed if we are to get a grip on this problem, in particular looking at prevention of fly-tipping before it occurs.’
Photo: Paul J Martin/Shutterstock.com
