Funding of £38k to help council tackle fly-tipping

Cotswold District Council has been awarded government funding to help with their fight against fly-tipping

A council has been awarded government funding to help combat fly-tipping.

Cotswold District Council has been given about £38,000, which it has started using to advise people on proper waste removal and invest in new technology to catch offenders.

Fly-tipping numbers in the area shot up following the Covid lockdowns and have stayed up - with just more than 500 in 2019/20 but more than 1,000 in 2022/23, the council said.

Cabinet Member for Planning and Regulatory Services at the council, Juliet Layton, is reminding people that their rubbish is their own responsibility.

Cameras have already been installed in fly-tipping hotspots in the district, with the money allowing the council to get some newer technology.

“We are hopeful that this campaign will spread awareness around duty of care and in turn reduce the number of fly-tips in our district due to rogue waste carriers," Ms Layton added.

Councillor Juliet Layton wants to remind people to take responsibility for their own rubbish

The funding has been used to promote the council's "S.C.R.A.P" fly-tipping campaign, which urges people to suspect and question waste carriers.

The council is asking people to check with the Environment Agency that the carriers are licensed, refuse unexpected offers to take waste away, ask where it will go and get a receipt.

Ms Layton said: "You could be issued a fixed penalty notice of up to £600 for a duty of care offence so please, if you are paying someone to remove your waste, ask those questions and get evidence in the form of a waste transfer note."

Regular stop and searches with the police and trading standards have also been carried out to advise traders of their responsibilities and the council has recruited 20 volunteers known as 'fly-tipping guardians'.

The Environment Agency's website has a list of registered businesses that can take away waste, the council said.

Rich Cornock, a dairy farmer from Tytherington, said he finds rubbish dumped on his land "every month or so".

"A significant amount of my time is wasted by clearing that," he said.

"I can't just put it all in a wheelie bin, I've got to pay someone to take it away."

Mr Cornock said the fly-tipping is mentally draining, and his biggest worry is finding something polluting.

While he said he's never discovered anything "really horrific" on his land, asbestos was dumped on a council-owned verge nearby.

Mr Cornock, known as The Funky Farmer online, believes there should be "higher fines" for those who fly-tip.

"The main thing is for people who are paying someone to take that refuse away is that make sure they're disposing of it properly and legally find out where they're taking it to.

"I think there's some element of society that will go out there and just pay the money and not care, and the people who are taking it away are just dumping it in my gateway," he said.