Liverpool’s high fly-tipping level is due to ‘honest reporting’

Oct 10 2007 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post

HALF of all Britain’s fly- tipping happens in Liverpool, according to a report released last night.

The document issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) shows 1,289,410 incidents were reported by Liverpool City Council between April 2006 and March 2007, out of 2.6m nationally.

But the city council says the reason for the huge figure is the “honest” way fly-tipping is recorded in the area, a method it is now changing to avoid similar startling results next year.

The council includes every black bin bag that is left out by households on the wrong day, whereas most other authorities leave them out.

The city’s figures are so high that they add up to more illegal dumping than the grand total for every other English local authority, except Sheffield which is another of the worst offenders. The report says half of all fly-tips recorded nationally involved single black bags and it is estimated that the majority of these occurred in back alleys and involved waste placed out for collection incorrectly, primarily in Liverpool.

In the city, 1,230,466 of the reports, 98.5% of all cases, were black bin bags.

A council spokesman said: “Liverpool’s figure is apparently so much higher than other authorities because we include single bin bags, which have been left out on the wrong day for bin collection.

“We believe that we have been reporting the fly-tipping problem correctly. If people put out their rubbish on the wrong day, it becomes fly- tipping, because the bags will be disturbed and will attract rodents.

“If we did not regard this as fly-tipping our figures would be reduced by more than half a million incidents.”

“However, it is clear that other authorities have not been doing this and we have agreed with Defra that in future this type of activity will not be included in our figures.” He added: “Fly-tipping is a problem in Liverpool and we are doing all we can to eradicate the problem, including issuing fixed penalty notices and prosecuting people.

“We target areas which have a particular problem, writing to all householders to remind them of their responsibility, and taking action against those who do not comply.”

A Defra spokesperson said it welcomed steps to reduce fly tipping.”