A report released by Welsh Government and Fly-tipping Action Wales revealed that Caerphilly are one of the top performing councils for issuing fixed penalty notices to tackle fly-tipping in Wales.
A total of 25,047 waste enforcement actions were recorded by local authorities in Wales over the 12 months, between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021.
These include prosecutions, fixed penalty notices, investigations and stop-and-search checks.
To continue efforts across Wales in the long-term fight against waste crime, Fly-tipping Action Wales is calling on Welsh homeowners to ensure that they are disposing of their excess household rubbish responsibly, by following their Waste Duty of Care.
Cllr Nigel George, Cabinet Member for Waste, Public Protection and Street Scene said ““Unfortunately, over 70% of fly-tipping incidents contain household waste, I’d like to remind householders to protect themselves from prosecution by always checking with Natural Resources Wales (NRW) that the person they use to remove any excess rubbish from their homes is a registered waste carrier. If a waste enforcement officer traces fly-tipped rubbish back to a resident that did not make these checks, they could receive a £300 fixed penalty notice (FPN) or an unlimited fine if prosecuted.
Cllr Philippa Marsden, Leader of Council “Like all other sectors, officers were working with depleted numbers due to the pandemic, yet the fact that they were still able to increase enforcement actions is testament to the hard work and commitment of the enforcement team that continued to tackle environmental crime on the ground during a very challenging time. we are now back to full strength and hoping for many more successful prosecutions in 2021-22”.
To check if a company is a registered waste carrier please call 03000 653000 or go to the NRW website https://naturalresources.wales/checkwaste?lang=en
The latest Welsh government figures in the report reveal fly-tipping has increased by 22% in Wales in the last year, which is thought to be because of national lockdowns to prevent Covid spreading.
