North Yorkshire dump registration scheme could push people towards fly-tipping, Greens say
Households must now register their details before visiting any of the county’s household waste recycling centres, in a move that the local authority says will make the service fairer and reduce misuse.
North Yorkshire’s new registration scheme for residents using the recycling dump could push people towards fly-tipping, the Green Party has claimed.
Households must now register their details before visiting any of the county’s household waste recycling centres, in a that the local authority says will make the service fairer and reduce misuse.
However, residents and opposition politicians have accused the council of giving a green light to fly-tippers.
Green Coun Andy Brown said: “If someone takes the trouble to load up their car and drive to a recycling centre only to discover that they live outside the permitted area or haven't filled out the right form then if they are turned away, a certain proportion of irresponsible people will simply tip the items by the side of the road.
“This is saving money by one route in order to spend more money cleaning up the consequent mess.
“Despite all the bland assurances I was given that everything was for the 'best in the best of all possible worlds', I still believe that North Yorkshire residents will end up paying a lot more to sort out fly tipping than we will save."
Residents described the changes as a “recipe for filling the roadsides with rubbish”, while another said: “Well done NY council, you’ve just added to the fly tipping problem. Nice one.”
North Yorkshire leader Coun Carl Les revealed that no one had yet been turned away from rubbish sites.
It is understood that in the early stages, staff will focus on supporting visitors and helping them register, rather than turning people away.
The council says the changes will help tackle misuse of the sites, with around one in six visits currently made by people from outside North Yorkshire — costing taxpayers up to £400,000 a year.
Coun Les said: “Nobody has been turned away yet and actually the staff have been very helpful in helping people to register there and then at the gate.
“It’s not a new or unique approach. Many, if not most, of our neighbours do it already.”
The controversial changes come with fly-tipping on the rise across the whole region.
It comes as the latest figures show there was a whopping 17 per cent increase in illegal waste dumps across Yorkshire and the Humber from 2023-24 to 2024-25, when the number of incidents reached more than 100,000.
This was the highest level since comparable records began in 2019.
Throughout the Dales, rubbish is being dumped at the side of the roads, with detritus blowing into the stunning Yorkshire countryside.
Bogus waste-disposal companies are using local Facebook groups to offer cash-in-hand collections of household rubbish, and then dumping it in laybys or farm tracks.
These are largely being run by organised criminal gangs, who are raking in huge amounts of cash from the lucrative illegal waste dumping.
The House of Lords’ cross-party Environment and Climate Change Committee said last year that the gangs are then channeling the money into drugs, money laundering and modern slavery.