Almost 9,000 fly-tipping incidents in Peterborough last year – costing council over £162,000 to remove

There were thousands of fly-tipping incidents in Peterborough in the last year, new figures show – costing Peterborough City Council more than £162,000 to remove.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs figures revealed there were 8,981 fly-tipping incidents in Peterborough in the 12 months to March 2022.

However, despite this being down from the 9,744 incident in Peterborough the previous year, environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy has said the high level of fly-tipping seen across England is a "tragedy" to the environment and communities.

Of the fly-tipping incidents in Peterborough last year, 91 per cent was discovered on council land – costing the council £162,180.56 to remove.

The largest proportion of illegally discarded waste in the area was household waste (74 per cent), followed by household black bin bags (ten per cent).

Across England, 1.09 million fly-tipping incidents were recorded in 2021 to 2022 – an overall decrease of four per cent from the 1.14 million reported in the year before.

The total cost of clearance to local authorities across the country was £10.7 million last year.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs figures show around 91,000 fixed penalty notices were issued across England in 2021 to 2022, an increase of 58 per cent on the previous year.

The number of court fines nearly tripled from just 621 to 1,798 last year – with the value of all fines being £840,000.

However, in Peterborough just 103 fixed penalty notices were issued last year, down from 168 in 2020-21 – with only six fines being issued by the courts.

A Peterborough City Council spokesperson said: "Fly-tipping is an issue in every town and city and sadly Peterborough is no different.

"Each year we spend £162,180.56 clearing fly-tipped waste from council land - that's money that could be better spent providing services for our residents. It also ruins the look of our city.

"If you see someone fly-tipping please report it to us on 01733 747474 with as much information as possible. We will take people to court and prosecute them where we have the evidence to do so."

Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Keep Britain Tidy chief executive, said: “A million plus fly-tipping incidents is a tragedy for the environment and communities and illustrates just how little people understand about the impact their unwanted ‘stuff’ can have.“We need immediate and tough enforcement that targets the rogue traders who are making a fortune by breaking the law, raking in the cash and wrecking our environment.”