Hyndburn Council plan to increase fly-tipping fines
The rises were proposed this week
Hyndburn Council is set to increase its fines for fly-tipping.
It plans to increase the current fixed penalty notice for illegal rubbish dumping from £75 to £80 and the fine for more serious incidents from £400 to £1,000.
The rises are proposed in a report by environment boss Stewart Eaves to Hyndburn Council’s cabinet on Wednesday.
It says: “Hyndburn Council has a free bulky waste collection service whereby residents either ring the council to book a collection or book online.
“The council will collect bulky waste items directly from residents’ properties and collects items such as sofas, arm chairs, mattresses, fridges, freezers, electrical items, metal items and wooden items.
“During financial year 24/25 waste services handled 9,346 bulky waste jobs and collected 16,889 bulky waste items for free directly from residents’ properties.
“However, despite the bulky waste service being available during the same period (i.e. from April 24 to March 25) there were 2,631 reported incidents of fly tipping in Hyndburn.
“While this number was a 10 per cent reduction from the previous year, it is still too many.
“However in general there are two main types of fly tipping in the borough.
“Firstly, dumped items or black bags full of waste being left in back streets, and secondly fly tipped loads tipped off the back of vehicles.
“Waste enforcement staff go out on a daily basis to deal with fly tipping and waste items being dumped in black bags.
“During financial year 24/25 waste enforcement staff issued 1159 advice notices, 512 targeted letters, 292 warning letters and issued 87 Fixed Penalty Notices.
“The current level of fixed penalty notice (FPN) issued in Hyndburn is £75 for a breach of a section 46 requirement of the EPA 1990 (typically leaving waste out in black bags as opposed to using the correct waste receptacles) and £400 for breach of section 33 (1)(a)of the EPA 1990 (larger fly tipping incidents).
“It is believed that the level of FPN is inadequate to act as a deterrent to stop people from not adhering to the law.
“It is therefore proposed that the Council increases its current level for FPNs as follows:
“(i) That for breaching a section 46 requirement of the EPA 1990 the FPN value is increased to £80 per incident (the maximum amount allowed)
“(ii) That for breaching section 33 (1)(a) of the EPA 1990 the FPN value is increased to £1000 per incident (the maximum amount allowed).”