Fly tippers beware – Swindon Borough Council will this year be stepping up enforcement activity to catch people illegally dumping waste.

The renewed focus on tackling fly tipping is part of the Council’s promise to ensure the streets are kept clean and safe for residents.

Last year, the Council received 1,726 reports of fly tipping from members of the public. But it is often difficult to prosecute the culprits due to the ability in many cases to identify them.

The Council’s EnviroCrime team has, however, had some success in identifying suspected offenders and obtaining clear ups by residents, which has resulted in fly tipping being removed without prosecutions taking place.

Limited evidence means that residential clear ups are often more appropriate solutions than court action and they result in the waste being removed without additional cost to the Council.

This year, however, the Council will be stepping up its enforcement activity in known fly tipping hotspots with the aim of securing prosecutions, if appropriate. In support of this, there will be an increase in the size of the Council’s EnviroCrime Team so that more staff are available to tackle the problem.

There will also be an anti-fly tipping campaign that aims to inform residents about how to dispose of waste in a responsible way.

Councillor Maureen Penny, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways and the Environment, said: “We respond to all incidents of fly tipping that are reported to us, but in order to prosecute we need to have the appropriate evidence.

“It is notoriously difficult to prosecute people for fly tipping because it can be very hard to identify those responsible, which is also the case when seeking to issue cautions and Fixed Penalty Notices.

“But it is important that people know that this year we will be making extra efforts to tackle fly tipping and prosecuting the offenders where we can.”

If residents have household waste which cannot be appropriately disposed of through the normal local authority waste collection service, they can check if the Household Waste and Recycling Centre at Cheney Manor Industrial Estate accepts the waste and take it there themselves.

They can also use the Council’s bulky waste collection service or a private business that provides a waste collection service.

To report incidents of fly tipping, log on to: https://bit.ly/2nvzaE3.