Council pledges crackdown on fly-tippers

Fly-tipping at the back of a building on Church Road, Seaforth

A council has promised a crackdown on fly-tippers after another huge mound of rubbish was found dumped behind an abandoned building.

Sofas, shopping trolleys and large sacks of industrial waste were dumped on private land behind the Old International Pub in Seaforth, Sefton, Merseyside.

Sefton Council said fly-tipping was "an eyesore" and a "potential hazard" and cost the authority hundreds of thousands of pounds every year.

It said anyone found fly-tipping could be fined or prosecuted.

A council spokesperson said: “That’s a six-figure sum that could otherwise be spent on important local services to benefit people in the Borough.

“The owners of the private land where this fly-tipping has occurred will be issued with an enforcement notice through our environmental health service."

Latest statistics published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs showed local authorities in England were called to 1.08 million fly-tipping incidents in 2022/23.

Digital waste tracking

The most prevalent were those of "lorry load" size or larger and the cost of clearance to local authorities was £13.2m.

Councils and the Environment Agency both have a responsibility in regards to fly tipping.

Local authorities like Sefton have a duty to clear fly-tipped material from public land and also investigate incidents on private land and carry out enforcement actions.

The government has recently announced plans to introduce mandatory digital waste tracking from April 2025.

This would require those who produce, handle, and dispose of waste, to upload information about their activities – helping regulators to better detect illegal activity and tackle waste crime.