Access to illegal dumps to be blocked in fly-tipping clampdown
Ministers will issue powers that allow gates to be locked or roads obstructed after more than 850 illegal dumps were found last year
ENVIRONMENT bosses will be able to block access to illegal dumps in a new clampdown on fly tipping.
Ministers last night pledged to issue new powers to lock gates or obstruct road entrances.
They will also today allow the Environment Agency to force problem site owners to clear them of waste eyesores.
The edict includes official dump with permits that are being illegally run, by for example taking too much waste.
And households who use unlicensed waste carriers to fly-tip could face fixed-penalty fines so councils no longer have to pursue sinners through the courts.
Environment Minister Therese Coffey said: “Waste crime and fly-tipping blight our communities and spoil our countryside, and we need determined action to tackle it.
“But we must all take responsibility for our waste to make sure it does not end up in the hands of criminals who will wilfully dump it.”
Waste crime costs the economy more than £600m a year, from clean-up costs and lost landfill tax revenues.
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More than 850 new illegal dumps were discovered last year.
Hundreds of thousands of fly-tipping incidents were reported across the country in 2016/17, including more than 360,000 in London and more than 128,000 in the north-west of England.
The announcement follows the launch last week by Theresa may of the government’s first 25 Year Environment Plan.