Criticism over 'weak' fly-tipping crackdown

Fly-tipping enforcement by a council has been labelled "weak" after data showed fewer than 20 fines were issued despite there being more than 21,000 recorded offences last year.

West Northamptonshire Council issued 18 fixed penalty notices and carried out one prosecution in 2024-25.

Farzana Aldridge, a Liberal Democrat member of the local authority, said: "No wonder the... culprits continue to pay no attention to the environmental crime that they regularly commit."

Nigel Stansfield, the Reform UK council's cabinet member for environment, recycling and waste, said clearance was now "a lot quicker and more efficient" but enforcement had not been taken seriously "for a long, long time".

Aldridge asked cabinet members at a meeting on 10 March why repeated occurrences of fly-tipping were not being addressed and what plans were in place to improve enforcement, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"In both urban and rural areas, we face the blight of fly-tipping across West Northamptonshire," she said.

"Our approach to enforcement is weak. It is an issue that is raised continuously by residents in my ward and indeed in other wards."

Andrew Last, the cabinet member for HR and corporate services, said resources were stretched but new tools such as an AI camera were being used to target hotspot areas.

"We continue to use initiatives to engage with communities to receive intelligence on potential fly-tippers and breed a culture of reporting," he said.

"Using technology hand in hand with the community, hopefully we can increase conviction rates, and if we increase conviction rates word will soon get around and hopefully that will reduce the fly-tipping problem overall."

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