Swindon resident issued with a fine after waste found fly-tipped in Winterbourne Monkton
Wiltshire Council has issued a £400 fixed penalty notice (FPN) to a Swindon resident who paid an unlicenced person to dispose of their domestic waste. The waste was subsequently fly-tipped in a layby in Winterbourne Monkton, near the Avebury World Heritage Site, and was inspected by Environmental Enforcement Officers.
The fly-tipped waste contained evidence that related to the Swindon resident, and they were fined £400 because they could not demonstrate that they had sufficiently taken steps to ensure their waste was being disposed of legitimately by a registered waste carrier.
When the resident was formally questioned about the incident, they acknowledged that they did not request to see a waste carriers licence, and they did not record vehicle details or obtain a receipt. The person recognised that they should have checked this before handing over the waste and payment to dispose of the waste. If they had given council officers details of who took - and subsequently dumped - the waste, they could have avoided the fine and the person who dumped the waste would have been investigated instead.
Cllr Caroline Thomas, Cabinet Member for Transport and Street Scene, said "We take fly-tipping very seriously here in Wiltshire, and as part of our Business Plan commitment and ongoing We're Targeting Fly-tippers (WTF) campaign, we have invested an extra £150,000 a year into tackling this environmental crime.
"This money has been invested in more enforcement staff and new technologies such as covert cameras to catch fly-tippers in the act and to prosecute these criminals, and we have issued more fixed penalty notices and prosecuted more fly-tippers in 2023 than ever before.
"With Christmas approaching, we urge householders to be extra vigilant when paying someone to take any waste away and to make sure they check they have a valid upper tier waste carrier licence; note their vehicle registration, make and model; and get a receipt or waste transfer note.
"Anyone who reports a fly-tipper to us could also receive a reward of up to £200 in high street vouchers if the information leads to the successful prosecution of an offender or the payment of a FPN."
Anybody who is issued with a FPN cannot be named as it is not a conviction in an open court.
To find out how to report fly-tipping in Wiltshire and to report it, plus 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.
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