Tougher fly tip penalties in force from today
Offenders could be fined up to £5,000
Tough penalties for fly tipping offenders in Wiltshire come into action from today as the Council adopts new regulations set out by the Government.
It means that people caught dumping waste in the county could face a penalty of £5,000, up from the previous cap of £1,000. The authority can still prosecute people in the most egregious cases.
Cabinet Member for Highways and Streetscene, Cllr Martin Smith, said it's an issue many people have raised with the council.
"Fly tipping is one of those issues that gets a lot of people very agitated, quite rightly. I hate seeing fly tips around the county and I hate littering as well. I just do not understand why people can't dispose of their waste in the correct way," he said.
He said the aim is to deter people from the onset and that fines are variable based on a number of factors.
"We are introducing a sort of framework of penalties, based on the impact of the fly-tipping incident, the size of it, the place, the harm it's causing, whether it's deliberate, whether it's inadvertent," he told us.
He reminded us that we are responsible for the safe and correct disposal of waste and is urging us to make sure anyone taking our rubbish away for us is legitimate.
"Make sure that these people are bona fide companies, that they have the right certification and they, you know, they check the, well, basically, it's safest to get, make sure you get a photograph of the registration plate on the vehicle that's taking it away, just to cover yourself," Cllr Smith said.
Any money generated from fixed penalty notices for fly tipping is ringfenced by law and can be used by the council for environmental enforcement investigations, waste removal and sort of restoring land that's been harmed by such activities.