Councils told to seize and crush vehicles used in fly-tipping

Writing in The Yorkshire Post, Mr Reed said: “There is emerging evidence that seizing and crushing the cars, vans and lorries involved in fly-tipping could have a dramatic impact on future incidents – but only a handful of councils use these powers.

“That’s why we are turbocharging new instructions for councils to use the powers they have, working closely with the police to put in more roadside checks and use drones and CCTV to track down, seize and crush cars and vans involved in fly-tipping.”

The Environment Secretary said he wanted councils to “get much more aggressive against fly-tippers”.

Fly-tipping was “out of control” under the last Tory government, the Cabinet minister said, describing it as “a stain on Yorkshire’s streets”.

Data from the Environment Department (Defra) shows local authorities in England dealt with a record 1.15m incidents last year – a 20 per cent increase from 2018-19.

Across Yorkshire and the Humber, there were more than 85,000 fly-tipping incidents, which Mr Reed said was costing the region more than £1bn every year.

He cited “a man in Thurnscoe dumping sofas on his own street, or a mound of waste being left on land next to one of Bradford’s busiest roads” as “just a few examples of fly-tipping which have rightly horrified communities”.

“For far too long, waste criminals who blight our towns have gone unpunished,” Mr Reed said.

“We’re looking to change the law so that those rogue operators who take rubbish from someone’s home and then dump it on a nearby road – they were getting away almost scot-free under the previous Government – they will now be looking at potentially five-year prison sentences.”

A review launched yesterday by the Government, which is expected to wrap up by the end of the summer, will look into encouraging more local authorities to deploy powers to seize and destroy waste criminals’ vans. Just two councils accounted for more than 60 per cent of seizures in 2023/24.

However, no extra money is to be made available for the planned crackdown on dumped rubbish, with cash-strapped local authorities to pay for it from existing budgets.

Mr Reed said: “In the most recent Budget, councils got a nearly 7% increase in their funding. That was the biggest increase for years.

“Now we expect councils to use some of that additional funding to tackle the scourge of dumped rubbish on our streets.”

Meanwhile, the Environment Agency will be given more resources to police the industry through permits and carry out identity and criminal record checks.

Environment Agency chief executive Philip Duffy said: “We’re determined to bring these criminals to justice through tough enforcement action and prosecutions.

“That’s why we support the Government’s crackdown on waste criminals, which will ensure we have the right powers to shut rogue operators out of the waste industry.”