Fly-tipping
Fly-tipping on public land
Our street cleansing team currently deals with nearly 4,500 public reports of fly-tipping on public land each year, with over 75% of cases being actioned within one working day of report.
We work closely with specialist colleagues in the regulatory services team to ensure evidence found on site is investigated. We particularly focus on ‘rogue trader’ waste activities, and local ‘hot spots’ where fly-tipping frequently recurs.
Fly-tipping is a criminal offence with significant penalties available to the courts when the perpetrators are identified.
You can read our fly-tipping action plan 2023-28 and the fly-tipping action plan appendix 2.
The form below should be used to report street cleaning issues on public land. If the issue you are reporting is on private land or property it will need to be resolved by the land owner or occupier. However, there are some cases where we help with issues on private sites that are publicly accessible, these include the removal of:
- Sharps and hazardous waste
- Chest freezers
- Graffiti of an obscene or defamatory nature
If you have witnessed a case of fly-tipping (on private or public land) and have evidence of who the perpetrator is then please continue with our ‘Report fly-tipping on public land’ form. This form has a section where you can provide the relevant details so we can investigate further. Fly-tipping is a criminal offence with significant penalties available to the courts when the perpetrators are identified.
Before you fill in this form
You won't be able to save this form to complete later, so please allow yourself up to five minutes to fill in the form.
For all other issues on private land, we provide a chargeable removal and disposal service to help landowners, landlords and businesses get litter and fly-tipping removed quickly and effectively from their land. This will give you confidence that the waste will be disposed of legally, professionally, and in an environmentally friendly way. To find out more about our services, please use our form.
Before you fill in this form
You won't be able to save this form to complete later, so please allow yourself at least five minutes to fill in the form.
Waste crime
There are some easy steps the public can take to take to avoid unwittingly contributing to waste crime:
- Check the people taking away your rubbish are registered waste carriers. Ideally they should have a copy of their registration documents on them; ask to see these. You can check their licence number at environment.data.gov.uk/public-register, or call 03708 506506 and the Environment Agency can check for you
- Get a written receipt/transfer note showing their contact details, a description of your waste and details of where they are taking it
- Note down the make, colour and registration number of the vehicle that’s taking your waste away
Check if a waste carrier is licensed
If you're hiring a waste carrier to remove and properly dispose of rubbish for you, then you have a duty of care to ensure that the waste carrier is licensed.
Check if a waste carrier is licensed
We recommend that you also request a receipt and retain it for at least two years. If your rubbish is found dumped by the waste carrier you've hired, and you can't show you carried out any checks, then you could potentially be prosecuted.
