South Tyneside sees ‘small drop’ in fly-tipping offences, with two ‘prolific’ offenders caught

According to South Tyneside Council’s environmental enforcement department, 1,033 instances of suspected fly-tipping have been investigated by the team in the last 12 months

James Maughan, the council’s service lead for community protection, said this equated to a “small drop” compared to the number investigated the previous year.

And he claimed positive steps were being made by the local authority to clampdown on waste offences – as well as catch the culprits behind such incidents.

A total of 42 fixed penalty notices have been issued for environmental offences, which sees those responsible hit with a fine.

Mr Maughan, who was speaking at Tuesday’s (October 11) meeting of the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Coordinating and Call-in Committee, said: “I think it’s important to know that 14 of these were for duty of care fly-tipping offences.

“This is where a resident of South Tyneside unfortunately failed in their duty to check that the disposing of their waste is properly licensed.”

Meanwhile there have been 28 prosecutions over the past 12 months, which included two criminal behaviour orders being issued to persistent fly-tippers.

Mr Maughan added: “We’re very proud we’ve got two criminal behaviour orders against two prolific fly-tippers in the borough.

“If they breach these criminal behaviour orders they would be subject to arrest and potential imprisonment, so the judiciary is starting to clampdown in these types of cases as well, which we were very pleased about.”

He added environmental enforcement prosecutions have also seen financial penalties of up to £2,000, driving bans, unpaid work and one vehicle seizure.

The meeting heard there had been a “small increase” in abandoned vehicles compared to the previous year, with 403 incidents investigated in total.

Elsewhere the presentation noted piloting CCTV options will be looked at by the council environmental enforcement team to aid them with their work.

Councillors at a place select committee meeting last year stated intelligence from residents was key in helping to tackle fly-tipping, while calls were also made for greater education over the issue.

Visit www.southtyneside.gov.uk/article/1974/How-to-report-fly-tipping for information on how to report fly-tipping.