Cost of clearing fly-tips in Harlow and Epping Forest

A series of freedom of information requests sent to 12 councils in Essex by the Local Democracy Reporting Service has revealed that clearing dumped rubbish often costs councils tens of thousands of pounds every year.

According to the responses, Colchester Borough Council has cleared the highest number of fly-tips in total, with 13,790 reported between financial years 2018 and 2019, to 2021 and 2022.

Meanwhile, Basildon Borough Council cleared the most over a three year period, at 11,381 between calendar years 2019 and 2021.

Harlow Council dealt with 6,529 fly-tips, while Epping Forest cleared 416.

A fly-tip in Epping Forest. Credit: Epping Forest District Council. Permission for use for all LDRS partners.

The total number of fly-tips across Essex over the period came to 45,999.

A spokesperson for Colchester Borough Council said: “Fly-tipping is classed as bulk dumping of waste material and is a serious offence that can incur a £200 Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) or lead to a court case where the fine could be unlimited. The amount of waste can range from a significant pile to a single black bag.

“A FPN can only be issued where we have proof where the fly-tip came from, either by catching the offender in the act or finding something within the fly-tip to identify the perpetrator.

“Once alerted to fly-tips anywhere in the borough we react quickly to deal with them – but sometimes this involves having to inform other authorities or private landowners whose responsibility it is to remove the waste.

A fly-tip in the Colchester borough. Credit: Colchester Borough Council. Permission for use for all LDRS partners.

“All fly-tips are searched and investigated and often lead to successful prosecutions or fines. If any evidence is found at a fly-tip by a member of the public, they should not touch it but report it for investigation.

“Unfortunately, since the pandemic began, we have seen a general increase in fly-tipping across the borough, which has put a huge strain on our resources, but we have nevertheless, in very trying circumstances, stepped up patrols of known hotspots on council land. This has resulted in 79 FPNs being issued in the year April 2021 to March 2022.

A Basildon Council spokesperson said in a statement:  “The number of incidents where items have been removed was down 17.1% in 2021 when compared with 2020. In the last six months, the council has issued over 150 fines for the unauthorised deposit of waste, plus there have been a number of prosecutions of individuals and householders responsible for fly-tipping.

“The council employs an in-house enforcement team, supported by an external contractor to undertake enforcement patrols and tackle the issue across the borough. The council also utilises mobile CCTV to help identify and catch those responsible, and we’ve recently doubled the fine for fly-tipping from £200 to £400 to act as a deterrent to committing the act.

A fly-tip in Braintree. Credit: Braintree District Council. Permission for use for all LDRS partners.

“The majority of residents do the right thing with their waste, and we encourage all residents to book bulky waste collections and only use reputable contractors.”

Basildon – 11,381 fly-tips

In its response, Basildon Borough Council said it spent £70,000 each year clearing fly-tipped waste.

The council cleared 3,566 fly-tips in 2019, 4,272 in 2020 and 3,543 in 2021, with the highest single month across the three years being 579 cases in July 2020.

Average monthly fly-tips cleared by the council was 297 in 2019, 356 in 2020 and 295 in 2021, to the nearest case.

A large fly-tip in Braintree. Credit: Braintree District Council. Permission for use for all LDRS partners.

Braintree – 2,524 fly-tips

In the financial year 2019-2020, Braintree District Council spent £8,343 on clearing up fly-tips in the district. 

This figure is £11,960.90 for 2020-2021 and £3,875 for 2021-2022, up to January 31 2022.

781 fly-tips were removed by the council in 2019, compared with 961 in 2020 and 782 in 2021.

The month with the highest number of fly-tips across the three years was January 2020, in which 140 fly-tips were cleared away by the council.

The average number of cases for 2019 was 65, while for 2020 it was 80 and for 2021 it was 65, to the nearest case.

Colchester – 13,790 fly-tips

Colchester Borough Council said it could not provide cost data on how much it spent clearing up fly-tips.

But it did reveal the borough saw 3,173 fly-tips in the financial year 2018-2019, 2,464 in 2019-2020, 4,192 in 2020-2021 and 3,961 in 2021-2022 up until February 28.

This totals to 9,829 cases over a three year period, and 13,790 when 2021-2022 is included.

March 2021 had 591 cases cleared away, the highest month of cases across the three years.

In 2018-2019, the average number of fly-tips cleared by the council was 264, then 205 in 2019-2020, 349 in 2020-2021 and 330 in 2021-2022, to the nearest whole case.

Harlow – 6,529 fly-tips

Harlow Council says the removal of fly-tips is part of a larger budget for the provision of street cleansing services and is not costed separately.

2019 saw the council clear 2,089 fly-tips, with an average of 174 cases a month.

This rose to 2,313 fly-tips in 2021 and 2,177 in 2021, with average monthly cases at 193 and 181 respectively, to the nearest case.

The month with the highest number of cases was July 2020, during which the council cleared 313 fly-tips.

Epping Forest – 416 fly-tips

In Epping Forest, the financial year saw 268 total fly-tips cleared, at a cost £29,782.06 to the district council.

According to the district council’s response, it cost £21,454.95 to clear 148 fly-tips in 2020-2019.

Castle Point – 3,104 fly-tips

The cost of cleaning up fly-tipped waste is built into Castle Point Borough Council’s street cleansing contract, according to its response. It declined to provide specific costs.

The council cleared 894 fly-tips in 2019 with 75 monthly cases on average, 1,160 in 2020 with 96 average monthly cases and 1,050 in 2021 with 88 average monthly cases.

June 2021 was the highest month of fly-tips that had to be cleared by the council, at 118.

Chelmsford – 1,000 fly-tips

Chelmsford City Council spent £13,911 on clearing fly-tipped waste in 2019, £14,702 and £59,303 in 2021.

It cleared 163 fly-tips in 2019, and 160 in 2020, but 677 in 2021.

The council records its case numbers in quarters, with April-June 2021 being the highest quarter, seeing 215 fly-tips.

However, the monthly average number of fly-tips cleared by the council, to the nearest case, was 14 in 2019 and 2020, and 56 in 2021.

Maldon – 1,035 fly-tips

According to data from Waste Data Flow, there were 388 reported incidents of fly-tipping in the Maldon district in 2019, 485 in 2020 and 162 in the first quarter of 2021.

Rochford – 1,535 fly-tips

Rochford District Council estimates its annual cost for clearing up fly-tipped waste is £80,000. 

However, it says the fly tipping clean-up operation is part of a larger contract with Suez, who also do litter picking, emptying bins, sweeping pavements and road and weed clearance for the council for a larger sum.

According to its response, this was £700,592.08 in 2019, £706,196.81 in 2020 and £716,789.76 in 2021.

The council cleared 487 fly-tips in 2019, 588 in 2020 and 460 in 2021, with the average monthly numbers of incidents being 41 in 2019, 49 in 2020 and 38 in 2021, to the nearest whole case.

Tendring – 4,035 fly-tips

The total spend by Tendring District Council on cleaning activities, including but not limited to fly-tipping, was £77,987.25 in 2019, £77,062.50 in 2020 and £73,421.25 in 2022.

1,120 fly-tips were cleared by the council in 2019, 1,951 in 2020 and 964 in 2021.

The highest number of fly-tips cleared in any one month was 264 in July 2020, with the monthly average number of cases at 93 in 2019, 163 in 2020 and 80 in 2021, to the nearest case.

Uttlesford – 650 fly-tips

Uttlesford District Council cleared 242 fly tips in the year 2021, 125 in 2020 and 250 in 2019.

However, it did not clear any between March-August 2020, due to the impact of COVID-19.

It says it does not hold any information regarding the cost of clearing the fly-tips.