Woman prosecuted after town centre fly tipping

The items were fly tipped onto a public footpath

A woman has been prosecuted and fined after she left waste on a town centre footpath in 2023.

Lilly Bence of Bank Row, Calne, was found to have left items such as nappies, food waste and cardboard on a footpath adjacent to her street.

Wiltshire Council successfully prosecuted Ms Bence, and fined her £822.72 after she pleaded guilty at a court hearing on 22 March in Swindon.

The action was taken as part of the local council's zero-tolerance approach to fly tipping.

On 26 June 2023, the council was told waste had been left on the footpath, with environmental enforcement officers finding several open bags full of waste which was spilling out.

The council added the bags contained nappies, food waste, cardboard, drinks cans and packaging.

Officers then traced it back to Ms Bence, who acknowledged it was her waste. The investigation also discovered she had been given three contamination tags on her bin, a warning letter and a visit from a waste office prior to the incident.

According to the council, Ms Bence later claimed the waste was due to a local meet-up of bikers on 29 July 2023, but officers point out the incident had occurred more than a month earlier.

'We'll take all options'

Nick Holder, Cabinet Member for Highways and Street Scene, said: "We are

focused on tackling fly-tipping in Wiltshire, and as part of our Business Plan

commitment and our award-winning We're Targeting Fly-tippers (WTF) campaign,

we have invested an extra £150,000 a year into tackling environmental crime.

"This investment has so far seen a 125% increase in fly-tipping prosecutions and a

118% increase in fixed penalty notices in the past year, which shows that we will

take all legal options available to us wherever we find fly-tipping."