Councils across the country have stepped up their action against fly-tippers in the build-up to Christmas, as they make use of new powers to issue on-the-spot fines and crush vehicles used in fly-tipping operations.

Almost 900,000 incidents of fly-tipping are dealt with by councils in England every year, and in 2014/15 the number of recorded incidents rose by almost six per cent on 2013/14’s figure, with clear-up costs, paid for by public budgets, increasing by 11 per cent over the same year.

An article in Resource.co, states this increase could be due to the ‘Man with a van’ phenomenon:

‘Man with a van’ phenomenon

The LGA says that a large part of this recent increase across England and Wales is the rising popularity of the ‘man with a van’ phenomenon, which involves unpermitted cold callers offering to dispose of large households goods for cash and then illegally dumping them in alleys, country roads or on privately owned land. As well as costing councils millions of pounds, waste dumped on private land must be cleared at the landowner’s expense, even if they are not responsible for the waste or complicit in the illegal activity.

Residents and businesses are legally obligated to check that any party disposing of their waste is a registered waste carrier, and if fly-tipped waste is traced back to a particular household, residents can face fines of up to £5,000.

Zero-tolerance approach

In the buildup to Christmas, however, councils are using their powers to focus on those committing the fly-tipping, with the LGA highlighting cases of vans used for illegal dumping in Croydon and Bradford being seized and crushed.

LGA Environment spokesman Cllr Martin Tett said: “Councils are taking a zero-tolerance approach to fly-tipping, and this means using every power at their disposal – including seizing and destroying vehicles used by the dumpers.

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