£90K bill investigating fly-tipping offences

RUBBISH DUMP Fly-tippers are hard to prosecute.

More than 3,000 cases were reported to Kirklees Council between May 2012 and April 2013.

A new report from the government has highlighted how difficult it is for local councils throughout the UK to deal with fly-tipping and dumped rubbish.

Just three people from Kirklees were taken to court over the offences and 10 fixed penalty tickets of £50 were handed out.

Wakefield has the highest number of complaints in West Yorkshire with 6,276 complaints. 26 penalty tickets were issued and there were 21 prosecutions.

A Kirklees Council spokesman said: “Fly-tipping is an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and if caught the perpetrators face a fine up to £50,000 and or a six month custodial sentence via the courts.

“People need to report incidents to enable the council to deal effectively with this.

“Call 01484 414700 and give all the details you can including time, place and any information that will help identify who is responsible such as make and model of vehicle, or a description of those involved and what you saw being dumped.

“Do not remove any evidence as the investigating officer will be looking at the dumped material and will recover everything they can.”