Wiltshire Fly-Tipping fine to go up
Wiltshire council are increasing fines for fly tipping and littering in line with new government legislation.
Currently you can be fined £400 for fly tipping, but that's going up to £1,000.
The fine for littering will also increase threefold; from £150 to £500
Wiltshire council are putting up fines to act as a deterrent to possible offenders and send a clear message to fly-tippers and litterers.
Wiltshire Council has raised the amounts of the fixed penalty notices (FPNs) that people will have to pay when they are caught fly-tipping, handing their waste to rogue traders or for dropping litter.
Anyone who currently fails in their household duty of care to prevent fly-tipping – for example, handing their waste to an unlicensed person who then dumps the waste – can be fined a maximum of £400, or £200 if paid within ten days.
As well as the increases in penalty fines, under the changes there will no longer be an early payment discount.
All funds raised through FPNs will be invested back into the service to catch more fly-tippers.
Wiltshire Council have also invested an extra £150,000 a year into tackling fly-tipping, including employing more enforcement staff to catch criminals, using new technologies such as covert cameras, and further promoting their 'We’re Targeting Fly-tippers (WTF)' campaign.
Cllr Nick Holder, Cabinet Member for Highways, Street Scene and Flooding, said:
“We increased the number of fixed penalty notices (FPNs) we issued for fly-tipping by 118% in 2023, but whenever we issue a fly-tipping FPN, people always tell us that the fines should be higher to deter further environmental crimes."
“Thanks to changes in Government legislation, we can now raise the FPN rates, with a fine of £1,000 for anyone who is caught fly-tipping in Wiltshire. For more serious offences, we will prosecute fly-tippers rather than issue an FPN, and anyone found guilty in court could face an unlimited fine or imprisonment."