Wirral Council recorded over 3,500 fly-tipping incidents last year

Data recently released by Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) shows how many fly-tipping incidents there were in each part of England.

Fly-tipping is the illegal dumping of liquid or solid waste on land or in water. The waste is usually dumped to avoid disposal costs.

In 2022/23 there were 1.08m fly-tipping incidents reported, a decrease of 1% from 1.09m in 2020/21. This is the second year in a row that a decrease has been seen.

The data shows that Wirral recorded 3,635 incidents, and 2,491 actions taken in 2022/23.

This resulted in just one Fixed Penalty Notice action and zero prosecutions. 

Looking at the figures for the North West region, Wirral sat in 15th place out of a possible 39.

Liverpool took the top spot with 23,404 incidents, with Manchester falling second with 13,658 incidents.

What did Wirral Council say?

Cllr Liz Grey, Chair of the Environment, Climate Emergency and Transport Committee for Wirral Council, said: "Fly-tipping is not a victimless crime, it is one we take very seriously due to the impact it has on people’s quality of life and the cost in environmental as well as financial terms.

"I encourage residents to report all incidents of fly-tipping to the council at the earliest opportunity and with as much information and evidence they can provide.

"Reports are logged and Environmental Enforcement Officers will investigate and look for evidence linking it to an offender. They will always seek to prosecute anyone who we can prove has fly-tipped.

"Reports are also passed over immediately to Wirral’s street cleansing contractor, Biffa, to remove the waste according to priority."

For more info and to report fly tipping see here.