Persistant fly-tipping and litter in Doncaster becoming 'unsustainable' as council issues 400 fines in three months

Bosses said they handed 408 fixed penalty notices to people across the borough and said there is a ‘significant challenge’ in trying to change people’s behaviour.

The latest available figures from April – Jun 2021, reveal that each offender was fined £150 for their offence.

In that same period, DMBC issued five fines of £400 each for people who were caught fly-tipping, and issued a further 20 fines of £150 for ‘small scale’ fly tips such as the ‘unlawful disposal’ of a black bin bag waste.

Bosses said that fly-tipping continues to be a ‘national, regional and local issue’ for all councils and that within DMBC 65 per cent of cases were closed within a targeted time frame of seven working days.

Other figures revealed 1,592 new cases were opened from April to June 2021 andand 2,002 reports were closed. This amounted to 437 tonnes of waste removed attributed to fly-tipping.

Council bosses said they will deploy further methods called the The service will focus on the ‘Three Es’.

Staff will follow a ‘engage, educate and enforce’ strategy through working with the voluntary, charity and faith sector, undertaking community action days and by ‘continuing to align enforcement activities’ with ‘cleanse activities to ensure efficient and effective enforcement’.

Sennette Wroot, senior policy and insight manager at DMBC, said: “One of the next most significant challenges we face is to focus on behaviour change in relation to the anti-social and criminal activity of people who fly-tip and litter within the borough.

“We will build upon our current approaches to Education, Empowerment and where necessary Enforcement.”

“The resources required to deal with persistent offenders and clearing fly-tips from hot spot areas – particularly residential areas – is unsustainable.

“Changing the behaviours of fly-tippers, those who dump waste in residential areas or those that employ unlicensed waste carriers will be a focus of additional activity.”