Fly-tipping rises while few offenders face action

Fly-tipping in Coventry is around 40% higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic, while only 3% of cases have led to enforcement action or prosecution, councillors have heard.

The figures were discussed at a meeting of the council's Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee, which reviewed a report outlining efforts to tackle the problem.

Measures include the deployment of compliance officers, neighbourhood support officers and targeted CCTV cameras to identify offenders.

Council leader George Duggins said one of his priorities this year was to "go heavier and harder" on prosecutions for fly-tipping offences.

Councillor John McNicholas said CCTV would be a vital part of any crackdown on fly-tipping.

"If ward councillors and residents can provide information about hotspots, we can make sure cameras are targeted at those locations," he said.

Councillor Frank Beechey questioned explanations for the rise in reported incidents.

Looking at data from the past decade, he said there had been a significant increase during the pandemic, but levels remained much higher than before Covid.

"When we challenged this, the answer we were given was that more people are reporting it, so it appears there is more fly-tipping – I do not buy that," he said.

Beechey described the rate of enforcement and prosecution as "ridiculously low", with action taken in only 3% of reported cases.

Not all councillors agreed that more CCTV was the answer. Councillor Amirjit Kaur argued that cameras alone would not prevent fly-tipping, warning that offenders would simply move elsewhere.

Kaur added that five incidents had been reported in her Upper Stoke ward in the past week alone.

Councillor Matt Greenhalgh highlighted education and language barriers as significant challenges in his St Michael's ward, which he said has a large transient population.

He suggested providing information packs to new residents, and recalled stopping a group of people who were about to dispose of waste in a skip because they mistakenly thought it was somewhere they could dispose of rubbish.

Duggins said the council had already taken several steps to address the issue, including raising fixed penalty notices for fly-tipping from £200 to the maximum £1,000.

The authority has also introduced its 'Bringing the Tip to You' scheme, which delivers waste disposal services directly to neighbourhoods with high levels of illegal dumping in an effort to reduce offences.

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