Fly tipping is largely going unpunished in Milton Keynes, claim opposition councillors

MK Council is "burying its head in the sand" as far as fly-tipping is concerned, claimed councillors today.

The Conservative group claims the council is failing to crack down on fly-tipping criminals - with figures revealing a massive 97% of recorded fly-tipping incidents are going unpunished.

Across the summer, more than 15 fly-tipping incidents were reported each day in MK, with 1342 new incidents of fly-tipping recorded throughout the borough.

But statistics from MK Council show that only 3% of these cases resulted in prosecution, say the Tories.

Since June 2021, only 44 fixed penalty notices were issued by MK Council’s Environmental Crime Unit, they claim.

The Conservatives say that the Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition's “Fly-Tipping Action Plan” isn’t working and that they warned the coalition that the plan would do “nothing to suggest more prosecutions for fly-tipping would be made”.

Cllr Alex Walker, Leader of the Conservative Group, said: “The coalition’s record on fly-tipping is impossible to defend. Not only do they put up barriers to waste disposal with the tip booking system, but they also fail to punish criminals who fly-tip their rubbish on our green spaces and in our communities.

"We’ve been clear from the start. More enforcement and fewer barriers to waste disposal are the only ways to combat fly-tipping but the coalition continue to stick their head in the sand while residents pick up the pieces.”

However, the Labour and Lib Dem Progressive Alliance say fly-tipping has "massively decreased" in MK over the past year.

They say MK Council has issued 53 Fixed Penalty Notices to people that have illegally fly-tipped over the past year.

And last month they unveiled a fly-tipping action plan, which details how the council will invest more in CCTV, introduce community skips and hand out on-the-spot fines for littering.

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