Less than one in a hundred incidents of fly-tipping in Wokingham have been successfully prosecuted since 2019, a freedom of information request (FOI) submitted by The News has revealed.
Of the 5,205 cases in the borough over the last three years, just 45 fixed penalty notices have been issued and paid – a total of 0.9 per cent.
Incidents have fallen since a record high of 2,324 in 2020 during the pandemic, however the number since April 2021 has increased by 22 per cent on 2019’s figures.
This is an average of 145 incidents per month for the last three years. No data is held prior to 2019, according to Wokingham Borough Council.
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The data shows that Grazeley Road in Grazeley has seen the greatest number of successful prosecutions, with four being paid since 2019. One such incident in November saw a £400 fixed-penalty issued and paid – the highest on-the-spot fine possible.
In another case, Heathlands Road was rendered impassable after scrap, including a sofa, was dumped in the lane in November of last year.
Figures showed that in 2021 the council spent a total of £22,500 on removing discarded rubbish.
£14,400 was spent on cleaning up waste that had been left across 27 individual incidents and £8,100 was expensed to clear 52 separate cases of waste dumped by tipper lorries.
A spokesperson for Wokingham Borough Council said: “The volume of fly-tipping increased everywhere during the Covid-19 lockdowns and with people going out for local walks for their daily exercise.
"It is difficult to secure fixed penalty notices as they can only be issued if clear evidence is found or the fly-tip was witness."
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Offenders can be taken to court, which could lead to a £400 fine or 12 months' imprisonment if convicted in a Magistrates' Court or an unlimited fine and/or up to five years imprisonment if convicted in a Crown Court.
Fly-tipping is classified as the illegal dumping of any waste or rubbish on public land or sites which are unauthorised to accept waste.
The most common type of fly-tipped waste found in Wokingham is household waste, followed by construction waste – with most cases in Wokingham being found on roads and country lanes.
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The council has pledged to crack down on the behaviour since 2020, culminating in the implementation of a crime prevention team on April 1 of this year.
The new seven day a week service is responsible for dealing with issues that ‘affect residents’ quality of life’ - such as fly-tipping – as well as other examples of anti-social behaviours.
The executive member for neighbourhoods and communities, Bill Soane, said the team will be “proactive” and patrol known trouble hot spots to “stop problems before they happen.”
According to fixmystreet.co.uk, there are still 108 ‘open’ cases of fly-tipping in the borough, dating back to April 2021.
“Fly-tipping is one of the priorities of the new anti-social behaviour team will be investigating fly tipping as well as working with the police to disrupt it. We will also continue with our communications and education to deter people from this behaviour,” said the council spokesperson.
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