LAST year there were more than 2,500 fly-tipping incidents in Basingstoke and Deane but action was taken on less than half of them.

Data recently released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs shows how many incidents there were in each part of England. 

It shows that last year (2022/23) there were 2,525 incidents but action was only taken against 121 cases with only nine of the offenders eventually getting prosecuted. 

Basingstoke Gazette: General image of fly-tipping

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Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s cabinet member for residents’ services and housing, Cllr Laura James said: “We know that keeping the borough’s streets clean is very important to our residents.

“It is always difficult to know the reasons for changes in fly-tipping with the figures fluctuating year on year.

“The amount of fly-tipping has reduced by 204 tonnes over the past three years, meaning less rubbish is being dumped in our borough.

“We are taking action to tackle fly-tipping with a number of measures in place. These include installing surveillance cameras and clear signage at all six of our recycling sites. We are also continuing to take enforcement action wherever possible with 90 warnings, cautions, fixed penalty notices and prosecution proceedings issued for fly-tipping and waste related offences since April 2022.”

In the borough the year before (2021/22) waste was illegal dumped 2,169 times and action was taken against 86 of these incidents. This means there has been an increase of of 356 incidents.

In 2021/22 there were 15 successful prosecutions.

Overall there was a slight increase with there being 21,873 incidents of fly-tipping in Hampshire in 2022/2023 compared to 21,691 in 2021/2022.

Places such as Winchester, Fareham and Eastleigh saw significant decreases but most went up.

The data shows that the worse place for fly-tipping last year in Hampshire was Southampton with 9,486 incidents closely followed by Basingstoke and Deane with 2,525 incidents, with Test Valley landing in third place.

The council has told the Gazette that there has been an improvement in the borough. 

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It said that in 2020/21 408 tonnes of waste was dumped, in 2021/22 it was 308 tonnes, and in 2011/23 it was 204 tonnes – a reduction of 204 tonnes over three years.

The cost of clearing of fly-tips is the responsibility of the borough council and is taken from the general street cleansing budget. 

Since April 2022 the borough council has taken enforcement action against 90 people including cautions, warnings, fixed penalty notices and prosecution proceedings, for fly-tipping and related offences.