Doncaster Council threatens lockdown flytippers with £50,000 fines and jail sentences

Up and down the country, councils are facing with an increase in fly-tipping because of the lockdown, with the Local Government Association reporting that local authorities nationally are dealing with an 80% increase in fly tipping incidents.

The coronavirus pandemic has meant that the council has reduced some services, including picking up litter and dumped rubbish, to be able to respond to the needs of vulnerable communities who are most in need of help and to ensure safe working practices for staff.

Household Waste Recycling Centres have had to be temporarily closed and green bin collections have been suspended to enable the more crucial black and blue bins to continue to be emptied.

Instead of trying to get rid of it, residents are being urged to hold on to their excess household waste or consider other ways to minimise it such as thinking carefully before buying certain items, not doing DIY or large clear outs, reusing where possible and home composting (but never burning rubbish which causes excessive smoke and is a fire risk).

Cabinet Member for the Environment, Coun Chris McGuinness says people are using this as an excuse to fly-tip, placing extra strain on services, dirtying Doncaster’s streets and damaging countryside.

He said: “We totally understand that people may have more household waste than usual during the lockdown period, but this is NOT an excuse to dump it. We are seeing an increase in dumped rubbish, especially down back alleys, which is putting people’s health at risk and increasing the need for frontline workers to have to respond to incidents at a time when we all should be doing everything we can to protect each other. I urge people to do their civic duty during this time of crisis.

“My message for these disgusting fly-tippers - we investigate all reported incidents and we’ve recently invested in state of the art technology to catch people in the act. We WILL catch you.”

The council also warns that some people may not even realise they are fly-tipping - many people unwittingly hand over their waste to unscrupulous traders posing on social media sites as legitimate waste removers. These traders are then dumping rubbish illegally by the roadside. If this happens householders could receive a fixed penalty notice of £250 if the waste is traced back to them.

To stop this from happening to you, check if someone holds a waste carrier license and follow the SCRAP code by checking out how on the council’s website HERE

To report an incident of fly-tipping visit www.doncaster.gov.uk/report-it although some incidents may take longer to deal with than usual during this time.