Local authorities in Nottinghamshire are struggling to deal with fly-tipping as a record-breaking year shows more incidents than ever before.
CBJ Star can reveal that just 14 prosecutions related to fly-tipping happened in Nottinghamshire between April 2023 and March 2024.
Only three districts brought any prosecution actions against fly-tippers at all.
Newark & Sherwood brought the most with six, just beating Bassetlaw with five, and Ashfield brought the other three.
These prosecutions cost local authorities £10,203, and resulted in 12 fines being issued by the courts.
Nottingham City Council, which recorded 30,511 instances of fly-tipping – the most of any district within the county by a substantial margin – did not bring a single rubbish dumper to court last year.
No district in the county last year brought even half a per cent of fly-tippers to court, compared to the number of incidents in the same time-span.
So why is it so hard to prosecute fly-tippers?
Councillor for the Ernehale ward of Gedling, David Ellis, is the Portfolio holder for Public Protection on Gedling Borough Council.
He said: “Fly-tipping is a crime and will be prosecuted where the evidence allows, but this is hard to do.
“We do not prosecute people as often as we would like.
“If there’s evidence in the rubbish then that helps – domestic things like packaging from new kitchens or mattresses.
“I’d urge people to be careful when they hire waste disposal services, as on occasion they will not be licensed and will dump the rubbish improperly.”
Gedling is one of the five councils within Nottinghamshire to not register a single prosecution for fly-tipping last year.
Sarah-Marie Taylor, 36, moved to Sneinton a year and a half ago.
She started the Sneinton Waste Action Group (SWAG) in response to the fly-tipping in her new area.
“Prosecution is like a six step process, so it is really hard,” she said.
“It’s really hard to catch people because they’re clever.
“They’ll come at two in the morning with their faces covered.
“Unless the council are out there, sat watching – which they have done before – it’s really hard to catch them in the act.”
The issue of fly-tipping used to be under more control.
There were just 16,260 fly-tipping incidents recorded across Nottinghamshire between April 2017 and March 2018.
Local authorities in Nottinghamshire brought just over 14,695 actions against fly-tippers – a difference of 1,565 – in that time.
But last year the difference between incidents and actions was 22,923.
The phrase “actions against fly-tippers” refers to any deliberate act done by local authorities to deter or punish those who fly-tip.
That extensive list of actions includes handing out warning letters, Fixed Penalty Notices, fines, or prosecuting offenders.
This means that multiple actions, as recorded by the data, can be taken against the same incident of fly-tipping.
If every action recorded by a local authority reflected one incident of fly-tipping, the percentage of fly-tips investigated across Nottinghamshire last year would sit at just 43 per cent.
But one incident of fly-tipping can elicit more than one action from local authorities, so it is likely that the real percentage is lower than 43 per cent.
Some residents are being forced to take matters into their own hands.
Next Saturday (May 24) SWAG are hosting a Skip It day, where Sneinton residents can come and dump their rubbish in a skip, to keep it from ending up on the streets.
After the council rejected to help with the initiative, Sarah-Marie was forced to apply for a £500 grant from the Renewals Trust to fund the day.
But the Sneinton community has come together to support the movement.
She explained: “Everybody has come forward and offered free services for us.
“Enva are providing two industrial skips completely free of charge, which is amazing.
“All of our flyers and posters were printed for free by a local printer in Sneinton, and they printed us 20 high-vis jackets with our logo on the back.
“A couple of local businesses have offered their vans so we can go and collect people’s rubbish if it’s too bulky.
“For me, that’s my biggest triumph.”
