Unanimous vote to ramp up fines for fly-tipping in Windsor and Maidenhead

The council has voted in favour of seeking to up the fines for fly-tippers in the Borough.

At a full council meeting on Wednesday, Councillor Genevieve Gosling (Con, Sunningdale and Cheapside) put forward a motion to increase the fine from fixed penalty notices (FPNs).

Currently, the fine is £400 for six bags of rubbish, reduced to £200 if paid within 14 days.

The original motion proposed increasing this to £500 (reducing to £300) and installing cameras at frequently used fly-tipping spots.

However, councillors couldn’t vote for this, because any increase in fines has to be part of its official budget.

Instead, the motion was amended to say the council will ‘investigate’ increasing the fines and installing cameras.

Cllr Gosling said: “Fly-tipping is a blight across the UK and contrary to common belief, it’s not primarily driven by high waste disposal charges.

“It’s often about convenience and laziness, paying someone else to dump waste illegally.

“A Freedom of Information request to the Royal Borough revealed that… we spent £135,000 in 2022/23 on fly-tipping clean-up. Yet we’ve recovered just £7,800 pounds through [fines].

“That’s a huge gap and not a sustainable one.

“By comparison, Buckinghamshire introduced £1,000 FPNs in December 2023. They back this with active surveillance using smart cameras and public dash cam submissions.

“Their approach has reduced fly-tipping incidents and serves as a powerful deterrent.

“We can learn from this. Raising FPNs to £500 is a modest step, but a necessary one.”

There was support for the motion across the chamber, although with words of caution from some councillors looking at the bigger picture.

Green waste and the fees for disposal was raised as an issue, as well the cost of prosecution to the council, and the need for pressure on and collaboration with other local authorities.

Cllr Julian Sharpe (Con, Cllr Julian Sharpe) also identified an issue relating to the use of a Surrey County Council tip for residents in Ascot.

A three-month trial will see visitors needing to book a time slot in advance, which runs the risk of someone missing the window.

“I can imagine a lot of people will get totally exasperated by it and will simply say, ‘We’ve got our waste, we’ll find a convenient place to throw it,’ Cllr Sharpe said.

Rural areas are particularly ‘blighted’ and are hotspots for dumping ‘everything from tyres to oil’, contaminating the land.

Much of this is coming from outside the area, noted Cllr Jodie Grove (Ind, Datchet, Horton and Wraysbury) – all the more reason to ramp up the punishments.

“When a council steps up and makes it almost impossible to fly-tip without being penalised, those people will move on because that’s part of their business model,” she said.

Cllr Neil Knowles (OWRA, Old Windsor) noted the importance of enforcement – but highlighted it can be difficult to do.

“In the past we had the famous District Enforcement – unfortunately their business model was more chasing people around town centres for dropping a cigarette end, sadly,” he said.

He suggested there should be a reward for people who submit dashcam footage that catches somebody fly-tippers in the act.

Summing up, Cllr Gosling reiterated the need for ‘tougher penalties and smarter prevention’ in the Borough. Councillors voted unanimously for her motion.