Fly-tipping crackdown after reports nearly double

Fly-tipping reports in Birmingham have almost doubled since bin workers started industrial action and enforcement teams are stretched to capacity, a council report has found.

Mountains of rubbish have been seen in parts of the city at times this year since bin collection workers walked out in January, with an all-out strike since March.

The average number of fly-tipping cases recorded by the city council in eight months in 2024 was 53, compared to an average 96 per month from January to March, with 118 cases in March alone.

On Friday, a raid was carried out by police and council officers in the Sandwell area as part of their enforcement efforts in which a man was arrested for suspected fly-tipping offences and a van seized from a nearby home.

"The overall numbers of cases of fly-tipping have increased significantly as an impact of the industrial action in waste management," a report for the city council's licensing and public protection committee agenda said in June.

"This work is currently taking nearly all the available resource of the Waste Enforcement Unit."

Data obtained by the BBC using a Freedom of Information request showed the number of people fined for fly-tipping had also increased since the bin strikes began.

There were 78 fines of £1,000 issued by the council in April and May, 67 more than in the same period in 2024.

Councillor Majid Mahmood said the authority was dealing more quickly with the fly-tipping problem.

He explained: "During the industrial action we have had some dropped collections across the city because of the disruption which tends to lead to more fly-tipping but we have increased the number of street cleansing teams... and they are collecting the fly-tipping probably quicker now than they've ever done before."

Some city residents also claimed in April people were travelling to different areas to fly-tip on existing waste.

Mahmood said more cameras and a new enforcement hub to tackle fly-tipping had led to an increase in enforcement and prosecutions.

"They're working extremely hard, given the difficult challenge we have in the city," he said.

In 2024-25, the council's waste enforcement unit carried out 767 investigations into fly-tipped waste which led to 206 fines, with 128 of them paid.

Additional reporting by Jonathan Fagg, BBC England Data Unit.

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