WAR ON LITTER: Councils to be given new powers to issue fines for fly-tipping

The fines would apply to people who handed their waste over to another person or company in the belief they would dispose of it legally, who then fly-tipped it.

The new rules come as the Argus’ War on Litter campaign – which has been running since July 2018 – has been shortlisted for campaign of the year in the 2019 Wales Media Awards.

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Currently councils can issue fines for allowing waste to by fly-tipped, but the person the fine is issued to can refuse to pay it and ask for the matter to be dealt with in court instead – which can prove costly to the taxpayer.

But under the new powers councils will be able to issue £300 fines to the originator of the waste, reduced to £150 if paid in 10 days.

A Welsh Government report said in the 2017-2018 financial year there were more than 35,000 incidents of fly-tipping in Wales, costing the taxpayer almost £2 million to clean up.

The report said: “Whilst the source, size and nature of these incidents can vary, over 60 per cent originates from domestic properties.

“Identifying who dumped this waste can prove difficult and there is often no traceable evidence.

“However, when evidence is found and it can be traced back to a householder, sometimes it is established the householder did not fly-tip the waste themselves but rather had not carried out the appropriate checks (their waste duty of care) and had allowed an unauthorised person to take it away.”

The War on Litter campaign is working to raise awareness of the plague of littering and fly-tipping across Gwent – as well as shining a spotlight on some of the dedicated volunteers and communities who are working to clear it up.

Although the Welsh Government report says there are “a small number” of successful prosecutions each year, councils often consider prosecutions inappropriate as they may leave the household in question with a criminal record even if they did not know the waste was going to be fly-tipped.

Also, when fines are issued by the courts they are paid to the court, while the new fines would instead by paid to Natural Resources Wales and put back into enforcement and clean-up costs.

For more information on the War on Litter campaign visit our Facebook group here.