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Fly tippers fined

The Environment Agency estimate that 5,000 companies in Kent are transporting their waste illegally, causing harm to human health, wild life, water supplies and rivers.

Fly tipping is an anti-social and financially unacceptable issue, due to the clean ups and removal of illegal waste having to be funded by the council. Nevertheless, an immense number of businesses tend to fail in fulfilling their legal responsibilities towards the environment.

In order to decrease the rising number of businesses involved in waste crime, Clean Kent, the Environment Agency, police and other environmental organisations have joined together in a campaign to catch the people responsible. This campaign will also help to raise awareness about the importance of the health and financial damages that fly tipping can cause.

Kay Champion, who is leading the campaign, told Canterbury News that checks on the whole waste chain are planned to be made, from the construction and demolition sites, to the people who carry waste. Even sites where waste is sent will be investigated.

She also warned “where we find the laws being broken, we will take appropriate enforcement action.”

Waste criminals can face fines up to £50,000 when found fly tipping. This October, three waste criminals from Ashford were ordered to pay over £100,000 in fines for their illegal discarding.

Also, in June, Kent Police managed to prevent 30 vehicles from fly tipping in the Herne Bay and Whitstable area within one day.

Sergeant David Brenchley said: ‘Local communities, particularly in rural areas, have highlighted the problems of fly tipping. Carriers of waste must operate in the law and we shall continue to work with other agencies to ensure this happens and the road checks and those that we plan to carry out in the future are part of this.’

The Clean Kent Campaign was launched in May 2004 to combat littering, graffiti and fly tipping. Its members are working hard to reduce the incidences of fly tipping across Kent. With the help from a dedicated enforcement team, Clean Kent has helped achieve a countywide reduction in the number of reported instances of fly tipping by 35 per cent.

Individual waste criminals commit crimes such as discarding freezers or abandoning vehicles, which causes the environment enough harm alone, but business waste criminals dump far larger amounts of waste, which consequently causes greater damage.

Melanie Price, Clean Kent coordinator at Kent County Council, said that fly tipping costs them dear, both in financial and environmental terms.

Furthermore, for the past two years the Kent County Council has been working on a series of initiatives that have proved successful. They hope that by raising awareness of the legislation they can encourage all parties to deal with their rubbish in a responsible, legal and sustainable way.

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