Fly-tipping

Fly-tipping is the illegal dumping of waste. It can cause pollution to our land and waterways. It also costs significant amounts of Council Tax-payer’s money to clear away.

Fly-tipping is a serious criminal offence and you can be prosecuted. The courts have various powers available to them to tackle fly-tipping, including:

• imprisonment
• unlimited fines
• an order to deprive you rights to a vehicle used to commit the offence

It can carry a maximum fine of £50,000, or even more if the case goes to Crown Court, and a prison sentence of up to five years.

Our fly-tipping form is often used to report issues that should go to other services.

Uncollected waste and displaced bins

Waste left out for collection, including black bags, and bins that have been moved or blown in the wind are not fly-tipping. Find out more about reporting a missed collection.

Overflowing public bins

Overflowing public bins are not classed as fly-tipping and should be reported using the report a litter bin problem form. 

Littering

Littering is not the same as fly-tipping and should be reported using our report littering form. This includes small amounts of waste such as food packaging, cigarette butts and dog poo bags. 

Littering offences apply to public spaces, roads and land owned by councils and other public bodies. It does not apply to private land that is not accessible to the public. 

Leaves

Fallen leaves are not classed as fly-tipping and can be reported using our report leaves form.

Vehicles

Stolen vehicles are not classed as fly-tipping and should be reported to the police. You can report a stolen vehicle on their website.

Abandoned vehicles can be reported using our abandoned vehicles form.

We can only consider a fly-tipping prosecution if there is supporting evidence to do so.

If you witness fly-tipping, please report it to us. 

Fly-tipping can be reported on public or private land, and we will investigate and prosecute if we have enough evidence. However, on private land, clearing the waste is the landowner’s responsibility.

Please consider if the waste is classed as fly-tipping before using this for to report it. If you have read our ‘what is not classed as fly-tipping’ information, and you are happy that what you are reporting is classed as fly-tipping, you can report it to us online.

We will ask you for:

• the time and date of the incident
• a description of people involved
• a description of vehicles involved such as the registration, colour, make and model
• a description of the waste that has been left
• photos of the waste, if you have any

We try to clear up fly-tipping within two working days of being made aware of it. Where possible we prosecute those responsible, but it may take longer to clear the site while we gather evidence.