Council has 17,000 fly-tipping incidents in a year

West Northamptonshire Council said the problem of fly-tipping was growing

A council had more than 17,000 fly-tipping incidents reported to it in a year, costing about £750,000 to clean up.

West Northamptonshire Council said it issued 3,092 fixed penalty notices for environmental crime in the year to March.

The authority's leader, Jonathan Nunn, said fly-tipping caused "huge costs [and] sadly that number is growing".

Meanwhile, North Northamptonshire Council said it had about 3,000 incidents reported in 2022, from the figures it had available.

Mr Nunn told a cabinet meeting of West Northamptonshire Council last week the total of 17,301 incidents was "a massive number".

"There is a lot of work going on to deal with that problem," he said.

Both councils regularly report prosecutions of fly-tippers in their areas, the authorities said.

One person found to have fly-tipped had to pay more than £2,000 after he dumped five bags of rubbish in Northampton last year.

Meanwhile, this month a serial fly-tipper living in North Northamptonshire was fined more than £6,000.

Graham Lawman, North Northamptonshire Council's executive member for highways, travel and assets, said: "His actions were selfish, for financial gain, seemingly without thought for others and left a series of unsightly messes along our lanes."