Fly-tipping rose over the last year, figures show

Coventry City Council said 6,428 fly-tipping offences were recorded between 2024 and 2025

Fly tipping around Coventry has increased in the last 12 months, city council figures show.

Offences in the city rose from 5,929 to 6,428 between 2024 and 2025, a report considered by a Coventry City Council scrutiny committee stated.

It comes after a 13% reduction in reported offences between 2023 and 2024.

Councillor Gary Ridley suggest the fly-tipping was being carried out by "serious organised gangs" and asked if the council should be doing more.

"We sit and talk about fly-tipping as though it is some anti-social behaviour problem, but there is increasing evidence that this is coming from serious organised gangs making large amounts of money out of it," he said.

"It is great to see the actions we are taking, with the wall of shame and extra cameras, but are we at the point now where we need a much more robust multi-agency response?"

His question came after director of planning and performance Clare Boden-Hatton said it was "positive" that the number of fly-tipping referrals had gone up.

'Report crimes anonymously'

She said: "We want people to report incidents so we can investigate and where possible take enforcement action.

"It is also therefore positive that the number of enforcement actions has also increased and exceeded the number of referrals received.

"We are determined to reduce fly-tipping through a combination of education and enforcement, focussing our efforts on the streets that are causing the most issues."

She added 6,680 enforcement actions had been carried out, including verbal warnings, proactive inspections of businesses, service of notices and fixed penalties, and taking cases to court.

Ms Boden-Hatton also said the council had increased the fines for environmental offences alongside a communications campaign asking residents to report crimes anonymously.

Councillor Christine Thomas responded and said: "I am not surprised that prosecutions have gone up because the public are now working much closer with us, reporting more."

But she raised concerns over Villiers Street in Upper Stoke and suggested "people must know who they are" but said the public may be too afraid to report them for fear of recrimination.

She said: "Have we pushed enough that they can report anonymously?"