Fixed penalty notices considered for fly-tippers in Calderdale

Councillors were told it remains difficult to identify offenders

Fixed penalty notices (FPN) could be introduced for people caught fly-tipping in Calderdale.

If approved by Calderdale councillors, the notice would be used for lower level fly-tipping, with major breaches still going to court.

The council's director of public services said fines imposed by the court can often be no higher than the £400 a council can levy through a FPN.

It would also cut the amount of time staff spend preparing cases for court.

The council's director of public services Ian Day said a report would go to the authority's cabinet in due course.

"Often we find when we do take cases to court, we don't necessarily receive fine incomes higher than the fine level that we can (levy) through a fixed penalty notice," he said.

"So the intention would be to have a 'mixed economy' there, where the lower levels of fly-tipping we'll apply a fixed penalty notice and then larger tips that are more significant in terms of their impact and cost of clearance would be taken through the court system."

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mr Day was speaking at a meeting of the Place Scrutiny Board.

He told members most of the work to identify people fly-tipping was done using mobile cameras, but said it was difficult to identify culprits.

He pointed out that even if a name and address were found in the dumped rubbish, the council still had to prove it belonged to those who had fly-tipped.

He said some funding had been received to increase the number of cameras in the area.

Fixed penalty notices would be issued through identification of registration plates, if a person who received one challenged it, they would be invited in for interview, said Mr Day.

He also reminded members that households hiring a firm to remove waste for them had a duty to ensure the company had the correct documentation and approvals required.

Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail] or send video here.