Use this menu to go to your Council to report fly tipping
North Merseyside
Use this menu to go to your Council to report fly tipping
For all your environmental, health and safety advice.
Enforcement by authorities
There are a number of pieces of legislation that address how waste should
be managed - and set out the criminal offences of contravening these legal
controls. In addition, there are other legislative measures that can be
used to tackle waste problems. For example, some of these laws provide
measures to protect public health, the amenity of an area and the planning
controls on what sorts of activities may be carried out on a particular
piece of land.
Both local authorities and the Environment Agency have a range of powers
and duties to deal with fly tipping and other waste crimes. Some of the
legislation is enforced by both local authorities and the Environment
Agency and some is enforced by either the local authority or the
Environment Agency.
Each piece of legislation carries with it some penalties.
As the cost of legitimate disposal increases (landfill tax currently
at £18 per tonne but set to rise to a maximum of £35 per tonne)
and with van bans being applied to household waste disposal sites it is
becoming more and more tempting to fly tip waste. With Courts often handing
out "low or derisory sentences" to fly tippers who have been caught (a
finding of the EAC
Ninth Report - July 2004) the temptation is increased.
The Environment Agency is keen to see all enforcement bodies playing
an active role and for the courts to hand out appropriate sentences to
ensure there is an appropriate deterrent.
Local Authorities - their role
To dissuade people from flinging their unwanted waste here there and
everywhere Enforcement Officers within local authorities have the powers
to prosecute fly tippers and others who dispose of waste illegally. This
is being backed up by raising environmental awareness amongst Magistrates
and providing training opportunities to
ensure the various items of legislation are rigorously enforced.
The penalties for an offence heard at Magistrates' Court can now be a
maximum fine of £50,000 or 12 months imprisonment per offence. In
Crown Court the maximum prison sentence can be up to 2 years. For offences
involving hazardous wastes, the penalties are tougher.
One Lancashire authority has successfully persuaded their Magistrates
Bench to apply a minimum fine of £300 for fly tipping offences.
Fly tippers who are caught and found guilty can also expect to pay both
the clean-up costs in the form of compensation to the local authority and/or
the landowner plus their legal costs. Data on cleanup costs and other important
information is being collected on a national database called Flycapture
from all local authorities across.
