| Topic: | Reply | |
| Posted by: | Gordon Southwell | |
| Date/Time: | 17/07/25 09:26:00 |
While it may be correct to say that it is the primary responsibility for individual cases of flytipping is with the person who illegally dumps waste, the council has responsibility for the overall level of flytipping. It is inevitable that policies which reduce the ease and availability of options to dispose of waste will lead to a rise in flytipping and that appears to be what's happening here. Ealing experienced 12,922 fly-tipping incidents in 2022/23, up slightly from 12,303 the year before . By 2024, the council reported 22,730 incidents. You may choose to believe that suddenly the residents of Ealing have spontaneously become more prone to dump waste but it is more likely that the council's policy response has been inadequate. The closure of the Stirling Road facility isn't the only deficiency in council policy that appears to be driving up flytipping. Charges per tonne of commercial waste have been rising consistently and now are considerably more than neighbouring boroughs. Tactics used successfully by other boroughs such as free 'Mega Skips' for bulky items have not been adopted. I am very sceptical that massively increased fines will deal with the problem as 'professional' flytippers will usually avoid them and I believe most will be given out for relatively minor offences as appears to be happening in other boroughs. It would be interesting to see what would happen if someone put an envelope addressed to Peter Mason in a flytip. For other householders this seems to be deemed proof that they are responsible. |