‘Give us stronger fly-tipping penalties and give three points to drivers who throw rubbish out of cars’ – Doncaster councillor

Coun Chris McGuinness, cabinet member for the environment made the comments at a recent meeting and said the Government were not doing enough to tackle the problem.

Incidents of fly-tipping in Doncaster have rocketed during the pandemic and the council had a backlog of 1,000 cases to clear by the end of 2020. The council is putting more money in for clearance and extra CCTV is being installed in hotspots.

The clearance of fly-tipping is the responsibility of councils across the country but Coun McGuinness said the maximum fines of £50,000 and a 12-jail sentence were not deterring people.

The councillor said they had prosecuted two people in Doncaster Magistrates’ Court but 21 cases were pending. Coun McGuinness added the court system were not prioritising this enough.

“We need to get these scruffy people into court and get them punished and punished properly,” Coun McGuinness said.

“I’d go even further, littering from cars, the registered owner of the car should be given three points on their licence.

“I’m all for more severe penalties – let’s get the people that we catch into court. There’s two vehicles being crushed and we should be crushing more.

“Like everyone else I’m getting pretty fed up with it now and I look forward to hearing from our MPs Nick Fletcher, Rosie Winterton and Ed Miliband about where we are on this issue.”

Coun McGuinness said he and fellow cabinet member Coun Joe Blackham met with Don Valley MP Nick Fletcher in November and urged him to lobby Government on the progress of new laws on waste and recycling which was launched over two years ago.

“I don’t know what Government are going to do,” Coun McGuinness added.

“They haven’t approached this council for any input. But I think the time has come to find out from the Government where they are with the white paper on waste and recycling.

“We’ve prosecuted eight people this year in court for fly-tipping and we’ve still got 21 on a backlog, because of Covid-19 and certain restrictions, It’s not being given the emphasis that it should.”