Liverpool Council ‘worst in country’ for fly-tipping as Government release fines league table

Liverpool City Council has been named as the worst local authority in England for handing out fly-tipping fines, with just one issued amid 18,976 recorded incidents.

The figures come from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which has published a fly-tipping ‘league table’ for local authorities across England to highlight effective and ineffective enforcement.

Covering the reporting period of April 2021 to March 2022, the table reveals which councils were the worst for handing out fixed penalty notices (FPNs) to fly-tippers. Liverpool had the lowest number of fines per incident, at just 0.0001.

However, a spokesperson for Liverpool City Council told LiverpoolWorld that 31 FPNs have been handed out since October 2022 and the previous figures were likely ‘skewed’ by covid.

Defra published the main fly-tipping statistics in January, revealing that 42 councils in England did not issue a single fine.

Fly-tipping across Liverpool and Merseyside

• Liverpool Council only issued one fixed penalty notice (FPN) in regard to fly-tipping during the 21/22 period, despite recording 18,976 incidents. The local authority only took enforcement action on one occasion, which includes investigations, warning letters, statutory notices, fixed penalty notices (FPNs), duty of care inspections, stop and search, vehicles seized, formal cautions, prosecutions and injunctions. This means that out of the 265 authorities, Liverpool had the lowest number of fines per incident, at just 0.0001.

• Wirral Council did not issue a single FPN and recorded 3,820 incidents. However, Wirral Council did take other enforcement action 1,720 times.

• Sefton Council reported 4,520 enforcement actions, with 3,960 incidents. 645 FPNs were issued.

• Knowsley Council reported 2,044 incidents. The local authority took 1,618 actions with 15 of these being FPNs.

• St Helens Borough Council reported 1,643 incidents with 2,040 enforcement actions. 130 of these were FPNs.

Tories hit back at Labour claims

In response to the figures, Labour said the Government has turned a blind eye to the problem of fly-tipping, with only a small percentage of incidents leading to punishment.

Steve Reed, Shadow Justice Secretary said: “The Conservatives have allowed fly-tipping to go unpunished – leaving communities feeling broken and powerless as they head down a spiral of social and economic decline. A Labour government will clean up Britain. We will introduce clean-up squads to ensure those who make the mess, clean up the mess.”

However, the Conservative party has hit back at the claims. According to PA, a Conservative source said: “We’re taking no lectures from Labour when it comes to tackling fly-tipping. The latest statistics show that two of the best performing councils in the country were Conservative.

“The two worst in the country were Liverpool and Gateshead, issuing just two fixed penalty notices despite over 24,000 incidents of fly-tipping... under Labour.”

What have Defra said?

A Defra spokesperson said although fly-tipping incidents are down 4%, fixed penalty notices are up 58% and half a million enforcement actions have been taken nationally, they are ‘determined to do more to tackle this pernicious activity’.

They added that they have ‘raised the available penalties and increased scrutiny’ with the Government incresing the upper limits for fixed penalty notices in July this year - anyone caught fly-tipping can now be fined £1,000, up from £400.