Over 8,000 fly-tipping incidents reported to Kirklees Council over the last 12 months

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by the Reporter Series to the council revealed there were a total of 8,002 reports of fly-tipping to Kirklees Council between August 2023 and July 2024, which is an increase from the previous year (August 2022 to to July 2023) when 6,243 reports were made.

Of the 8,002 reports, 3,083 were across North Kirklees in the Dewsbury, Mirfield, Batley and Spen area. Again, this figure is up from the same period last year (2,620 reports in North Kirklees).

The FOI shows that between August 2023 and July 2024 there were 51 Fixed Penalty Notices issued - 25 for fly-tipping and 26 for duty of care. These figures are down from the previous year, which saw 28 FPN’s for fly-tipping and 34 issued for duty of care, resulting in a total of 62.

There were also 31 prosecutions for fly-tipping between August 2022 and July 2023.

Last year, the council prosecuted 11 people. The biggest punishment saw a £4,800 fine being issued as well as the fly-tipper’s vehicle being seized and crushed.

When asked how much is spent or budgeted per year by the council to keep public land clear of litter and fly-tipping, Kirklees responded:

“This information is not available. Due to the varying size of fly-tipping incidents, and the fact that many of them contain mixed waste types, waste disposal costs cannot be calculated as it is not possible to track tonnages from collection through to disposal.

“Waste is sorted, bulked and processed based on waste flows, site capacity and availability. Transport costs would have to be manually calculated for each instance and this would exceed the upper limit for officer time.

“Staffing cost is also not available as fly-tipping clearance only forms part of the team’s remit, and may be collected by other teams to ensure efficiency.”

The council also confirmed that it could not provide details of the top 20 worst fly-tipped streets in North Kirklees. A spokesperson said:

“We are not able to provide this information from our software system. The number of reports received does not reflect the amount of fly-tipping.”