Fines for fly-tipping must be increased significantly, as current sentences handed down fail to match the severity of the offence committed.
Changes have been proposed in a letter to the Sentencing Council – co-signed by the LGA, alongside 158 local authorities and 10 professional bodies – including encouraging the use of quicker, cheaper, easier-to-administer fixed penalty notices (FPNs) by ensuring court fines always exceed the £400 maximum FPN.
As it stands, a 12-step process is used to determine the sentence for a fly-tipping offence, with a deliberate offence incurring ‘minor’ environmental harm bringing a fine of 600 per cent of weekly earnings.
Based on average UK earnings, this should amount to more than £3,000, but in 2019/20, 2,671 court fines were issued at a total value of £1,170,000 – an average of just £438 per fine.
Twenty thousand incidents of fly-tipping occur each week in England.
Cllr Darren Rodwell, LGA Environment Spokesperson, said: “Fly-tipping currently costs local taxpayers almost £50 million a year to clean up, which could be better spent on other vital services in our communities – but until the fine matches the crime, the burden will continue to fall on residents.
“We are eager to work with government to update its sentencing guidelines to ensure that those caught and prosecuted for fly-tipping receive significant fines that help to offset the huge costs to councils and ensure they never offend again.”