Over recent years, tip closures and reduced hours have led to knock-on effects with fly-tipping. We explore this impact in detail and how to protect your local area.
Tip closures and reduced hours have been steadily increasing, especially over the last few months, leading to many communities being negatively impacted by this.
Disposing of large items or white goods cannot be completed in the same manner that other household waste is able to. Hence why individuals will seek to dispose of them via tips as this is an alternative option to remove goods for free or at low cost.
However, with many areas facing tip closures or reduced hours, there are both fewer opportunities and longer waits for households to dispose of these goods correctly.
Why Tip Closures and Reduced Hours Increased?
In most instances, tip closures or reduced hours are being linked to budget cuts to Local Authorities which has led to funds being stretched even further than before.
Due to this, as part of a cost-saving exercise, Local Authorities in some areas are being forced to close or cut the hours of existing tips to support other sectors.
Tips are costly to run with previous examples of closures and/or reduced hours displaying large savings for Councils.
In 2024, the tip closure and reduced opening times at two other tip sites in Birstall amounted to a saving of around £200,000 over two financial years for the Council there.
With these types of savings available, there is a high likelihood of additional closures or reduced hours in future with various tips across the country.
However, whilst this saves Councils and Local Authorities money, it also tends to negatively impact other pre-existing issues, which in this case is fly-tipping.
What Impact do Tip Closures and Reduced Hours Have on Fly-Tipping?
Think about this; your local area has no tip service or reduced hours, leaving households to either travel further away to a different tip or be left with longer wait times than before.
Faced by this challenge, households are likely to look elsewhere and seek alternative waste disposal options, one of which is fly-tipping.
Although this is a crime, many individuals are unaware of this or struggle with accessing alternative options, leading to an increased number of incidents.
Previous tip closures, including the one mentioned earlier in Birstall have been linked with an increase in fly-tipping due to the now time-consuming process residents must undertake.
Unfortunately, as much as tip closures and reduced opening hours can be cost-saving, they also come at a cost to other areas.
With fly-tipping being a prolific issue for most Local Authorities, most will understand the devastating consequences of such crime.
The Consequences of High Fly-Tipping Figures on Local Authorities
There are several consequences to fly-tipping for Local Authorities, Councils and communities:
- Financial loss - Most recent data shows Local Authorities dealt with just under 1.08 million fly-tipping incidents in 12 months. With the cost of clearance to Local Authorities in England alone amounting to £13.1 million.
- Environmental hazards - From an increase of vermin and toxic materials to public safety concerns regarding accidents and injuries, fly-tipping, particularly in urban areas can be extremely hazardous for any surrounding individuals.
- Environmental degradation - Fly-tipping in rural locations can damage the ecosystem present there, especially where chemicals and toxic materials are involved.
- Visual pollution - Fly-tipping can be visually disturbing for the surrounding community and be seen as off-putting to those visiting the local area. In turn, this can create economical damage for any businesses there.
- Reduced property values - Fly-tipping, particularly regular instances of it can reduce property values in that area due to it displaying an increased level of crime and decreased overall aesthetic quality of the neighborhood.
- Transportation disruption - Whether it be preventing bus routes and blocking roads to disrupting rail travel, fly-tipping can have severe impact on transportation, creating difficulty for the community and individuals responsible for resolving this.
- Pollution - Fly-tipping can contaminate soil, water and air due to any hazardous materials or chemicals that may be present. This causes environmental damage, public health risks and economic impacts.
How to Manage Fly-Tipping Following Tip Closures and Reduced Hours
Are you currently faced with increased fly-tipping due to tip closures or want to prepare for the future? There are various steps your Local Authority or Council can take to help manage and prevent crime if there are tip closures or reduced hours in your area.
We formed 7 key steps to help protect the public’s safety, maintain environmental standards and minimise financial loss created by fly-tipping:
Highlight Alternative Waste Removal Options
In scenarios where your area has a tip closure or opening hours are reduced, households and businesses will still require alternative options to remove their waste to avoid them resorting to fly-tipping.
However, if you do not inform the general public of these options there is a higher likelihood that individuals will fly-tip as they will be unaware of the other available options to them.
Alternative waste disposal options may include:
- Commercial Waste Collection Services
- Skip Hire
- Bulky Waste Collections
- Recycling Companies and Programmes
- Van Services
Some services may be viable through the Council and others self-organised by the individual looking to dispose of their waste.
If possible, you should communicate these in advance of any tip closure or adjustment in opening hours. Following this, you should communicate these options via your various platforms on a regular basis to ensure individuals remain aware.
Implement Security Cameras at Fly-Tipping Hotspots
Considered to be the most effective, accurate form of prevention against fly-tipping, security cameras provide visual criminal deterrent factors whilst also monitoring and recording any events.
Specifically the use of mobile units which provide complete flexibility to reach those remote, off-the-grid locations like in forests where traditional systems may not be able to support.
Having supported various Councils and Local Authorities to tackle such issues, our range of Redeployable CCTV Cameras and additional features including ANPR capabilities ensure you’re able to cater the protection provided to a location’s security needs.
Our Redeployable CCTV solutions include the following key features for fly-tipping prevention:
- Relocatable design that allows you to move the cameras from one fly-tipping hotspot to the next
- Live monitoring and recording backed by remote monitoring services that allow for a proactive and reactive approach to any potential fly-tippers
- Advanced camera technology that ensures high-quality, crystal clear imagery that can be reviewed easily and utilised as evidence in any fly-tipping prosecutions
- Integrated 4G/5G connectivity that allows you to remotely access the live camera feed from any device, wherever you are
- Built-in remote system diagnostics (Heartbeat) that continually checks system performance, helping ensure uptime and 24/7 coverage on your fly-tipping hotspots
- Control room integration that allows our camera to be integrated with existing Video Management Systems (VMS), centralising control and slotting it easily alongside other security infrastructure you may have
- Additional customisable features like PTZ capabilities, voice-down audio speakers, help buttons and blue lights that enhance the security provided to any fly-tipping hotspots
Create Promotional Campaigns
Social media platforms can be extremely effective in communicating key messages and announcements with local communities.
Many individuals have moved online for their news updates and your Local Authority or Council could be missing out on high engagement if you do not utilise this tool.
In the lead up to any tip closure or reduced opening hours, you can inform individuals of this via social media and present the alternative solution for them.
However, with this you can expand on this information and communicate the risks of fly-tipping, as well as the consequences individuals and businesses will face if found to have carried out this illegal activity.
With nearly a quarter of Britons admitting that they did not know fly-tipping was a crime, creating promotional campaigns that help increase engagement is likely to minimise the number of fly-tipping incidents.
Implement Clear Signage and Lighting at Fly-Tipping Hotspots
Most Councils and Local Authorities will be aware of fly-tipping hotspots across the area, therefore targeted efforts at these locations will help protect them against this crime and minimise incident numbers.
Two small measures you can implement is installing clear signage and security lighting at any known hotspots.
With signage, you can inform individuals of the reporting process for fly-tipping, but also of the legal and financial repercussions that can be faced if caught fly-tipping.
Placing signage at hotspots will indicate to any individuals that you are aware this location is a fly-tipping hotspot and will enforce any regulations if required.
Additionally, you should also consider installing security lighting at these fly-tipping hotspots.
Fly-tipping generally takes place at night, under cover of darkness. Therefore, by using motion sensored lighting, you can continue to keep hotspots concealed from those unaware of them, but remove that sense of security if individuals choose to potentially fly-tip there.
However, if installing lighting, you need to ensure that this is not inhibiting any security cameras present at that location.
Encourage Charity Donations
Some households will utilise tips for spring cleans to remove clothing, furniture and other household items that, however, if closed or on reduced hours, individuals may seek to remove them illegally through fly-tipping.
However, many items can be donated and those disposing of these goods normally may not be aware of this.
This is where encouraging charity donations to clothing banks, charity shops and organisations will ensure that households and businesses can still remove these goods whilst preventing fly-tipping.
You can communicate this option through social media platforms, notice boards and within community groups.
Ensure a Clear Fly-Tipping Reporting Process
Part of tackling fly-tipping is to ensure the general public are informed of the reporting process as they are the most likely to witness such crimes and also have invested interest in keeping the community clean.
Your Local Authority or Council could be missing out on prosecution opportunities by simply not having a clear reporting process that both residents and visitors are aware of.
Before communicating any process to the public, you need to establish what the process is, gathering key details like the contact number to report and the desired information.
From here, you can implement signage, create social media campaigns and directly engage with the community regarding this process and what individuals should be looking out for.
In turn, this will likely also help to discourage any individuals within the community from fly-tipping themselves if they are aware of the stringent process you follow.
Enforce Regulations Following Fly-Tipping Incidents
Ideally, preventing fly-tipping from happening in the first place is the main aim of any Local Authority, however, enforcing regulations in any cases is also an important element of the process.
Fly-tipping clean-up costs can be expensive, therefore, prosecuting individuals involved will help to both prevent them from committing it following this, but in recouping the costs back from the event.
However, to be able to enforce these regulations, you need to have located the individuals to prosecute.
This is where utilising Redeployable CCTV cameras can support as it records 24/7 and ensures this is stored in a high-quality format to support the capture of those involved and provide evidential footage for any court proceedings.
Without this, you could find enforcing regulations difficult and only entice others to fly-tip as they believe there are minimal risks to themselves doing so.
Get Ahead of Tip Closures and Fly-Tipping With Our Security Solutions
Whether it’s a tip closure or bin strikes, Local Authorities and Councils will be faced with obstacles that could lead to an increase in the number of fly-tipping incidents.
Therefore, preparing ahead of these potential obstacles will help to improve the management following these types of adjustments, but also in reducing the number of incidents in general.
With over 20-years of experience in fly-tipping prevention, our security solutions provide the expanded coverage, high-quality monitoring and enhanced prevention measures that help to stop or de-escalate threats quickly.
Time to take a fight against fly-tipping and speak with one of our security experts today about our solutions and the immediate protection they offer.
