Bradford on Avon businesses fined for the fly-tipping of commercial waste

A business in Bradford on Avon has been issued with £700 in fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for breaching their commercial waste duty of care.

The business, which cannot be named because a FPN is not a court conviction, was fined for depositing waste outside the Shambles in the town, for collection by the council as household waste when it was actually commercial waste. The business was issued with a £400 fine for illegally depositing the waste as fly-tipping and a further £300 fine for failing to produce waste transfer notes and not having a commercial waste contract in place.

Elsewhere in the town, another Bradford on Avon business was issued with a £300 fine for failing to produce waste transfer notes and for not having a lawful waste contract in place as part of the same investigation.

The crackdown on fly-tipping by both residents and business is part of the council's We're Targeting Fly-tippers (WTF) campaign and its extra investment into new technology and more officers to catch fly-tippers.

Cllr Caroline Thomas, Cabinet Member for Transport and Streetscene, said: Businesses have a legal duty of care to their waste. They must ensure it does not harm the environment and that is correctly presented for collection by a licenced commercial waste collector on their allocated collection day.

They must also obtain waste transfer notes that must be held for two years by law and can be requested by our officers at any time to prove they are complying with the law on commercial waste management.

Not only is fly-tipping unsightly, but it is a criminal offence that we take very seriously here in Wiltshire. That's why we have invested significant sums into officers and technology to combat fly-tipping in the county, as part of our Business Plan commitment and zero-tolerance approach.

To find out how to report fly-tipping in Wiltshire, more about the WTF campaign and how people who report fly-tipping could get a reward, people should go to: www.wiltshire.gov.uk/fly-tipping.