Which areas in the UK have the most reported fly-tipping incidents?

Fly-tipping doesn’t just have a serious impact on the environment, local wildlife and public health, but also costs millions of pounds to the taxpayer in order to be responsibly removed.

There were over a million fly-tipping incidents in the UK in the last year, which is more than any other year in the last decade, but which parts of the country are the worst offenders?

Areas with the Most Fly Tipping Incidents

The area with the most reported fly-tipping incidents was Leeds, with 32,411 incidents dealt with in the last year.

However, five out of the top ten areas with the most incidents were all located in London, with Camden, Brent, Croydon, Hounslow and Haringey the next worst offenders after Leeds and the total number of fly-tipping incidents across each London borough totalled 324,261.

Rank	Local Authority	Region	Fly Tipping Incidents	Fly Tipping Fines
1	Leeds	Yorkshire and Humber	32,411	£1,600
2	Camden	London	25,765	£0
3	Brent	London	23,965	£50,910
4	Croydon	London	22,184	£4,953
5	Hounslow	London	21,897	£0
6	Haringey	London	21,320	£11,917
7	Liverpool	North West	20,210	£0
8	Plymouth	South West	19,622	£5,570
9	Manchester	North West	19,056	£78,964
10	Birmingham	West Midlands	17,575	£175,643
11	Hammersmith and Fulham	London	16,769	£9,150
12	Bradford	Yorkshire and Humber	16,584	£4,875
13	Greenwich	London	15,897	£0
14	Sheffield	Yorkshire and Humber	15,254	£3,774
15	Northampton	East Midlands	15,246	£430
16	Westminster	London	15,003	£0
17	Newham	London	14,656	£0
18	Southwark	London	14,412	£9,794
19	Harrow	London	13,658	£50,396
20	Hackney	London	13,504	£6,186
21	Ealing	London	12,547	£0
22	Merton	London	11,406	£0
23	Southampton	South East	11,400	£0
24	Hillingdon	London	10,677	£0
25	Newcastle-upon-Tyne	North East	9,931	£42,635

Areas with the Least Fly Tipping Incidents

However, we also decided to look at which areas were the least likely to fly-tip, just one area recording zero incidents in the whole year, which was the remote Isles of Scilly.

Other than this, the area with the lowest occurrences were Oadby & Wigston in the East Midlands (17 incidents), which works out as almost 2,000 times fewer incidents than in Leeds.

Rank	Local Authority	Region	Fly Tipping Incidents	Fly Tipping Fines
1	Isles of Scilly	South West	0	£0
2	Oadby and Wigston	East Midlands	17	£0
3	Ryedale	Yorkshire and Humber	38	£0
4	West Somerset	South West	65	£0
5	Richmondshire	Yorkshire and Humber	105	£0
6	South Lakeland	North West	117	£0
7	Craven	Yorkshire and Humber	154	£903
8	Scarborough	Yorkshire and Humber	167	£4,485
9	Fareham	South East	181	£0
9	West Devon	South West	181	£167
11	High Peak	East Midlands	199	£0
12	Weymouth and Portland	South West	205	£0
13	Cheltenham	South West	207	£0
14	Christchurch	South West	212	£0
15	Lewes	South East	215	£0
16	Malvern Hills	West Midlands	217	£0
17	Derbyshire Dales	East Midlands	222	£0
18	Copeland	North West	237	£0
18	North Dorset	South West	237	£0
20	Torridge	South West	238	£150
21	Babergh	East	256	£0
22	Amber Valley	East Midlands	266	£0
23	Erewash	East Midlands	270	£80
23	Lichfield	West Midlands	270	£2,000
25	Forest Heath	East	271	£0

The Areas with the Highest Fly-Tipping Fines

The areas which are most likely to be caught fly-tipping aren’t necessarily the ones that have been hit with the biggest fines, with fines being decided based on the severity of the incident.

In fact, the area that has forked out the most in fines was Birmingham, with over £175,000 coughed up in the last year, which is over twice as much as the next city, suggesting that the local council in the city are particularly tough on fly-tippers.

Rank	Local Authority	Region	Fly Tipping Incidents	Fly Tipping Fines
1	Birmingham	West Midlands	17,575	£175,643
2	Manchester	North West	19,056	£78,964
3	Derby	East Midlands	6,004	£67,232
4	Leicester	East Midlands	7,997	£64,155
5	Brent	London	23,965	£50,910
6	Harrow	London	13,658	£50,396
7	Herefordshire	West Midlands	492	£49,481
8	Newcastle-upon-Tyne	North East	9,931	£42,635
9	South Bucks	South East	592	£22,970
10	Test Valley	South East	1,138	£22,631
11	Cheshire West and Chester	North West	4,068	£21,162
12	Kingston upon Hull, City of	Yorkshire and Humber	3,936	£20,826
13	Medway	South East	5,141	£19,060
14	Gateshead	North East	7,886	£18,286
15	Bolton	North West	1,004	£18,031
16	Haringey	London	21,320	£11,917
17	Darlington	North East	3,006	£11,292
18	Broxbourne	East	897	£10,015
19	Southwark	London	14,412	£9,794
20	North Kesteven	East Midlands	889	£9,318
21	York	Yorkshire and Humber	1,483	£9,244
22	Hammersmith and Fulham	London	16,769	£9,150
23	County Durham	North East	7,269	£9,106
24	South Holland	East Midlands	876	£8,574
25	East Riding of Yorkshire	Yorkshire and Humber	1,346	£8,282

How Much Could You Be Fined?

Fly-tipping is considered a criminal offence and can be punished by a fixed penalty notice of up to £400.

However, if the matter is more serious, then you could be convicted and hit with a fine of anything up to £50,000 or 12 months in prison at a Magistrate’s Court, or even 5 years in prison or an unlimited fine if dealt with at a Crown Court.

How to Legally Dispose of Waste

So, to make sure that you don’t get caught out and hit with a nasty fine, how can you safely and legally dispose of large amounts of waste?

Household waste is one of the most common types of fly-tipped waste, as large items of furniture can be a hassle to get rid of.

To make it easier, try to disassemble where possible before taking to your local tip, or better yet, look into how you could potentially recycle furniture instead, either by donating to charity or by getting in touch with your local council, as many now have dedicated recycling and disposal services.

Garden waste is also something which commonly gets dumped, but these can also be disposed of at your local tip, although you might require a permit for larger things such as whole hedges and trees.

You could also choose to hire a skip and most skip hire companies should arrange any permits that you require and will also come and collect the skip for you too. But do make sure that you’re dealing with a legitimate and reputable firm, as there have been increasing incidences of criminal gangs setting up fake waste disposal companies and dumping goods in hired outbuildings.

Sources

All data sourced from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs latest fly-tipping dataset (ENV24) and refers to the 2018-19 financial year.

For each local authority, we looked at both the number of total incidents and the total sum of fines paid.