South Yorkshire councils issue on-the-spot fines to fly-tippers

Local authorities across England handed out more than 4,600 fixed penalty notices and collected at least £773,000 for the offence in the year after the Government gave them new powers in May 2016.

Sheffield Council issued 27 penalty notices and collected £5,800 from offenders, Doncaster Council issued 22 and collected £2,580 and Rotherham issued eight and collected £400.

There are no figures available for Barnsley Council.

Fixed penalty notices avoid councils having to prosecute offenders at court.Local Government Association environment spokesman, Martin Tett, said it was wrong that councils had to spend 'vast amounts' a year tackling the problem at a time when they continued to face significant funding pressures.The move by the Government to allow councils to apply fixed penalty notices for small scale fly-tipping - in response to requests from town halls - had been a 'big step in the right direction' to help crackdown on fly-tippers, he said.But he said councils may still feel prosecutions are the most effective course of action."When they take offenders to court, councils need a faster and more effective legal system which means fly-tippers are given hard-hitting fines for more serious offences," he said."Local authorities should also be able to recoup all prosecution costs, rather than be left out of pocket."An Environment Department spokeswoman said: "Fly-tipping is an unacceptable blight on our landscape, which is why we have cracked down on offenders by strengthening sentencing guidelines and giving councils the powers to hand out on-the-spot fines to fly-tippers."We have made it easier for vehicles suspected of being used for fly-tipping to be stopped, searched and seized and will continue to work with local partners to stop this inexcusable crime."