THE NUMBER of fly-tipping incidents in the Basingstoke and Deane areas has come down after the borough council investigated an error in reporting cases in the previous year.

The region reported 2,935 fly-tipping incidents in 2020-21, which is far fewer than the 4,107 cases reported in 2019-20.

In 2018-19, the number of cases was 2,520.

The council has confirmed that the huge increase in the number of cases in 2019-20 was due to an error in the way the incidents were calculated.

READ MORE: Latest figures show more than 2,000 incidents of fly-tipping reported

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Recycling, Waste and Regulatory Services Cllr Hayley Eachus said: “When analysing the figures for 2019 to 2020 we investigated the large increase in the number of incidents cleared by our teams which did not correlate with the number of incidents reported by the public or even the weight of the fly-tips collected.

“It was determined that during this period some of our teams had incorrectly recorded side waste left out for grey bin collections as fly-tipping. Additional rubbish bags must not be left by the side of grey bins by residents.

“The only exception is where a bin has been missed and this is agreed between our waste and recycling team and the household. Since determining this error in recording, we have now resolved this matter and any grey bin collection side waste left is not being recorded in this way. Clearance of this is the responsibility of the household.

“In 2020-2021 DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) published that the council had cleared 2,935 fly-tips and the reason for this decrease is in some part due to the error in recording during the previous year.

“We continue to take fly-tipping in the borough very seriously and have a zero-tolerance approach, successfully achieving 39 prosecutions since May 2018.”

Meanwhile, a rural insurance expert is urging South East farmers and landowners to take extra steps to protect themselves against fly-tipping this winter, with the latest figures revealing a rise in cases across the South East region.

According to the DEFRA, a total of 121,283 fly-tipping incidents were recorded across the region in 2020-21, up from 90,507 during the previous 12 months. Incidents on agricultural land increased, year-on-year, from 794 to 1,133.

Rupert Wailes-Fairbairn, of rural insurance broker Lycetts, said: “Fly-tipping is an unwelcome blight on our countryside and can represent far more than an inconvenience to victims of the crime.

“Incidents not only pose significant environmental and human health risks, but also a legal and financial burden for farmers and landowners.

“Although local authorities will usually pay the clean-up costs of clearing waste from public land, the responsibility for removing waste from private land falls squarely at the feet of the landowners. If they fail to do so, they can face prosecution.”

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Clean-up bills per incident average around £1,000, according to the National Rural Crime Network, but large-scale incidents can cost upwards of £10,000.

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