Massive rise in number of fines issued to Bolton fly-tippers
Fines issued to fly-tippers in the borough have increased by a staggering amount over the last year.
A request made under the Freedom of Information Act has revealed the total number – and value – of fines issued over the last five years.
The number of people fined for fly-tipping between 2020 and 2024 was 188 – with 136 being last year alone.
This means 72 per cent of people fined in the last five years were fined in 2024.
The total value of the fines issued between 2020 and 2024 was £40,700 – with £32,150 coming from just 2024.
This was 79 per cent of the cash from the last five years coming from last year alone.
Cllr Richard Silvester, the council's executive cabinet member for climate change and the environment, said Labour has encouraged reporting incidents since taking control of the council in May 2023.
He said: 'We have encouraged the public to report fly-tipping incidents and because of this, the amount of fly-tipping reports received have increased.
'We do need to know where fly-tipping is occurring so that our enforcement officers can investigate for evidence and issue a fine and so that our teams can then attend to clear.'
Have a story? Get in touch at eoin.mccaul@newsquest.co.uk
Cllr Silvester said that the new Labour government has been seeking extra investment to tackle the problem.
This included an extra £300,000 for street cleaning and fly-tipping removal given to the council in their February budget.
He said: 'It is our mission to clean up the borough and to clear up the mess and lack of investment which the previous Conservative administration left us with and that is what we have been doing, staying true to our local manifesto commitments.'
READ MORE: Councils to get more powers to crush fly-tippers' vans in planned crackdown
READ MORE: More than 7,000 Bolton fly-tipping incidents reported in 10-year high
READ MORE: Call for more council action on fly-tipping in 'hazardous' Bolton area
Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently announced in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the government would be cracking down on fly-tippers with new technology.
He said: 'This is a message to the fly-tippers blighting our towns and villages- for too long, your actions have gone unpunished.
'That ends now. We'll use drones and new tech to identify your vehicle, then we'll crush it.'
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