Doncaster households fined for handing waste over to fly-tippers to dump

Doncaster Council has fined a number of households who passed waste onto unregistered disposal services, a councillor has said.
23 households have recently been fined for handing over waste to fly-tippers23 households have recently been fined for handing over waste to fly-tippers
23 households have recently been fined for handing over waste to fly-tippers

Coun Chris McGuinness, cabinet member for the environment, said 23 households received fines ‘in the last few months after the council enforcement officers linked fly-tipped waste to that property.

He said a rise in people hiring a ‘man in a van’ type service often left the household exposed to a fixed penalty notice because the services are often ‘not registered’ and usually ‘increases the chance’ that fly-tipping occurs.

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On the back of this, the Government passed legislation which gave powers to councils in fining people in this way, even though the resident hadn’t actually dumped the waste themselves.

Coun McGuinness was responding to a report which revealed a large increase in fly-tipping reports across Doncaster.

A report seen by councillors shows the percentage of fly-tipping incidents being investigated and removed within seven days was 51 per cent between January and March. The target is 85 per cent.

Figures show the council had to deal with 3,600 fly-tipping reports between January and March compared to 2,300 between October and December 2018 - a 36 per cent increase.

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Officers said they ‘do not have the resources’ currently to deal with the spike.

The council confirmed they would scrap restrictions limiting residents attending tips across Doncaster to dispose of building material no more than twice a year.

Residents can now attend tips as many times as they want but each trip is restricted to five 25kb bags of building material.

“This was all about stopping traders going in with a large bulk of stuff and in fairness, most people’s car can’t fit more than five bags of rubble anyway,” Coun McGuiness said.

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“One of the problems appears to be people going on the internet and looking for the man with a van type person to help you move your rubbish, in almost all cases there is no permit and are often not registered and this usually increases the chances that rubbish gets fly-tipped.

“People need to be really careful who they are giving their waste to and that is one of the key issues.

“We’re also looking at expanding the number of covert cameras at fly-tipping hotspots.”