Why fly-tipping is so bad in Newport, Gwent and Wales

New figures show the staggering costs involved in clearing thousands of illegally-dumped items across Wales – in 2019/20 clean-ups took £1.7 million out of council budgets.

Sadly, fly-tipping is a problem that doesn't seem to be going away. Each of the five council areas in Gwent recorded a rise in such incidents last year, compared with the previous 12 months.

Newport recorded 2,725 reports of fly-tipping, followed by Caerphilly (2,214 incidents), Blaenau Gwent (1,327), Torfaen (866) and Monmouthshire (572).

Caerphilly County Borough Council faced the highest costs for clearing fly-tipped waste (£156,251 in 2019/20), including nearly £100,000 spent on larger clean-ups of waste categorised as being dumped by vans.

Last week a Caerphilly councillor called for higher fines for those who fly-tip, because the current penalties were “woefully inadequate”. 

Blaenau Gwent council spent the most money clearing up "significant" amounts of fly-tipped waste, and in total forked out £85,394 on clean-ups last year.

In Newport, the city council spent £106,513 on clearing fly-tipping, followed by Torfaen (£38,473) and Monmouthshire (£26,782).

While the sums involved and the extent of the problem make for grim reading, this year brought a victory against fly-tippers when one of Newport's most notorious hotspots for waste-dumping was finally cleared.

The so-called 'road to nowhere', near Coedkernew, was labelled a "national embarrassment" and contained so much fly-tipping that the waste could be seen from space on Google satellite images.

But that was all cleared up a few months ago and the road - now free of waste - is almost unrecognisable.

Then and now: Thousands of old tyres were dumped along the 'road to nowhere' but now it is clear. Pictures taken in March 2021 and October 2021

Two men, from Cardiff, who were caught illegally dumping waste on the site, were later prosecuted and fined at Newport Magistrates’ Court.

But the new Wales figures on fly-tipping show that while thousands of incidents are investigated, the number of cases that result in prosecutions is much smaller.

Across Wales in 2019/20, enforcement action was taken in just 11 per cent of the public-land fly-tipping cases that were investigated.

Of the remainder, penalties ranged from warning letters to fines and inspections. Only 31 cases resulted in the suspects being prosecuted, of which 29 received a fine and two were given community service.

Advice on tackling fly-tipping, including information on how to report an incident, and guidance on checking whether a waste removal service is licensed, is available online at flytippingactionwales.org

What has been said about fly-tipping in Wales?

Pamela Jordan, senior officer at Fly Tipping Action Wales, said:“Fly-tipping is a serious crime which negatively impacts on our environment, wildlife, and local communities, as well causing flood risk in some cases, and is costly to clear up.

"Whilst the majority of fly tipping incidents are dealt with by Local Authorities, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) deals with larger scale incidents (generally those involving a lorry load) and fly tipping incidents on land that we manage.

"We would ask people to be wary of fly-tippers disguising themselves as legitimate waste removal operators. 

"These individuals will take your hard-earned money and make profit from blighting Wales’s countryside with your household rubbish — while putting you at risk of committing duty of care offences.

"If you are paying someone to take your waste away, you must check that they are a registered waste carrier using the search feature on the Natural Resources Wales website, and ask where they are taking your waste.

"Anybody who suspects illegal waste activity in their area should report it via NRW’s incident hotline on 0300 065 3000.”