A Derbyshire council is looking to significantly increase its flytipping fines in a bid to cover costly cleanups – with it currently charging the lowest fees in the county.
Derbyshire Dales District Council currently charges flytipping offenders £200, which is the lowest fine of all Derbyshire councils, and is now looking to increase this to £500.
This follows a move from central Government to increase the maximum fine amount for flytipping from £400 to £1,000.
Currently the next lowest flytipping fine from Derbyshire councils is £400 in Amber Valley, Bolsover and North East Derbyshire, with South Derbyshire charging £1,000 – if there is financial gain.
A Derbyshire Dales report to be discussed on January 16 details that a recent small fly-tip, involving a small van load of green waste, cost £84 to clear, while a larger fly-tip cost £685 to clear.
It details: “Fly tipping costs money and harms the environment and is classed as anti-social behaviour. It costs Councils and the taxpayers thousands of pounds every year.
“When it comes to pollution, the principle is that ‘the polluter pays’ and serving penalty notices for low level fly tipping is an effective way of reinforcing this message.
“The justification for the increase of fixed penalty notices is to reflect the increase in legislation and be more consistent with the other districts and boroughs.
“The increase should help towards the council’s costs in investigating and cleaning up illegally deposited waste/fly tips.
“Fixed penalties for low level fly tipping are proven to be an effective and efficient enforcement option and a useful deterrent.
“Compliance with the enforcement policy will also ensure that any large scale and organised fly tipping incidents will continue to be subject to court action where appropriate.
“The principal risk from not adopting the recommendation to increase the penalty notice amount to £500 could result in the council not re-claiming their costs of investigation and cleaning up of illegally deposited waste and the cost to council of taking low level fly tipping cases to court as the amount does not justify a penalty notice of £200 as set currently.”
The council started charging £200 for flytipping offences in 2016, with a discounted fee of £120 where payments are made within 10 days.
If approved, the new fee of £500 would be discounted to £250 if paid within 10 days.
