THE problem of fly-tipping will persist in Bradford unless punishments are made tougher, a councillor has claimed.

Bradford Council has this week backed calls for new sentencing guidelines on fly-tipping, which they say should urge courts to hand out higher fines.

The call comes as the Local Government Association revealed the average fine for fly-tipping issued by UK courts was just £335 in 2020/21.

Councils can issue fines of up to £400 for fly-tipping without the need to go to court.

The LGA’s figures show that many of those who are taken to court for more serious offences often pay much less than this.

In their call for tougher sentences the LGA said: “Fly-tipping costs councils more than £50 million a year to clear up.

“For 2020/21, local authorities in England dealt with 1.13 million fly-tipping incidents, an increase of 16 per cent from the 980,000 reported in 2019/20.

“Councils take fly-tipping extremely seriously and are taking increasing enforcement action against the criminals responsible.

“However, prosecuting fly-tippers often requires time-consuming and laborious investigations, with a high threshold of proof. In addition to the low fines, councils are often left out of pocket from court action as their costs are not fully repaid.”

In late 2019, a Bradford man was prosecuted by Bradford Council after being caught using a tipper truck to dump waste on Norbury Road, Ravenscliffe.

He was fined just £320 when he appeared at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates' Court.

Despite the court hearing that the incident had cost the Council over £900, including the clean up cost and the cost of bringing the case to court, he only had to pay £500 costs.

Councillor David Renard, environment spokesperson at the LGA, said: “We support the Government’s investment in CCTV in fly-tipping hotspots, but without higher fines for the worst-kind of offences, criminals will remain undeterred.

“Magistrates need new sentencing guidelines for fly-tipping, to make court action more worthwhile for councils and in turn, reduce fly-tipping in our communities.”

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council's Healthy People and Places Portfolio Holder, said: “We invest significant time and resources into prevention, detection and prosecution of fly tippers but without significant penalties the problem will persist.

“If we are to be effective, the punishment must act as a serious deterrent.

“We support the LGA’s position on this and would like to see a review of the sentencing guidelines which inform these penalties.”