Southampton City Council is launching new scheme to help tackle down fly tipping

Fly-tipping and illegal waste dumping are the next targets to be eliminated, as the council has launched a community led intervention in neighbourhoods like Newtown.

The new approach was introduced after feedback from locals.

The campaign is based on successful schemes trialled elsewhere in the UK, including a 63% reduction in fly-tipping recorded in Newham.

Although fly tipping can be as innocent as just throwing an empty bottle near a rubbish bin, it is still illegal and is a persistent issue costing taxpayers millions of pounds. 

Southampton City Council showed recent statistics of 42.7 fly-tipping incidents per 1,000 residents in 2023/24.

Most incidents happen in residential streets and alleyways, with more than 5,100 individual cases logged across the city. 

Fly tipping is not just a problem here in Hampshire; recent national governments statistics highlight that local authorities in England dealt with 1.15 million fly tipping incidents.

In a way to crackdown on illegal dumping, the government recently increased maximum fines for offenders, from 400 pounds to 1000, as part of a part of a wider national anti-waste strategy. 

The Councils all across England have also said that with so much rubbish, fly tipping is placing increasing pressure on already stretched waste management budgets.

Despite rising incidents, only a fraction of reported cases leads to enforcement action. In 2023 to 2024 there were 63000 fixed penalty notices issued and just 1378 court fines. 

With many incidents going unpunished and with millions of pounds spent on prevention, many residents says the only thing that can be done is act themselves and stop illegal dumping or fly-tipping.