Fly-tipping is not only a growing concern in my own constituency of Aldridge-Brownhills, but also across the wider West Midlands region. It has become a persistent and damaging problem, and it is vital that we come together to explore practical solutions and collaborative efforts to tackle its impact on our communities.
Keep Britain Tidy which does so much to raise awareness on the issue of fly-tipping and littering estimates – that Local Authorities in England dealt with 1.15 million fly-tipping incidents in 2023/24 which was up by 6% on the year before. 60% of all fly-tipping involves household waste and is costing the economy sum £1 billion pounds with enough fly-tipped waste to fill Wembley Stadium 30 times over.
But of course, for those of us who represent the West Midlands we are currently dealing with our own fly-tipping and littering situation thanks to Labour run Birmingham City Council’s bin strike.
The current and ongoing bin strike in Labour run Birmingham is now having a very detrimental effect on every one of us who share a border with Birmingham.
In the past few weeks, we have seen the amount of uncollected waste rise to a staggering 21,000 tons, which quite frankly is simply eye watering.
But what is also eye watering is now we have rats racing around the city as big as cats and we all know that these squeaky blinders don’t respect borders.
We have some residents in the city being forced to burn waste as they simply don’t know when the next bin collection will take place.
The bin strike in Birmingham is now a major public health emergency, as the Government knows all too well.
But, as Andy Street has rightly said this is having a major impact on the reputation of Birmingham and the wider West Midlands which will take years to recover from. Birmingham is making headlines on a daily basis as far away as Australia for all the wrong reasons.
At the point of writing this article Unite the union have rejected a further offer from the City Council and so the misery for Birmingham residents and residents across the wider West Midlands is set to continue.
However, it is heartening to see that proactive leadership can make a real difference. In stark contrast to the situation in Labour run Birmingham, where residents are enduring the ongoing bin strikes that have left many streets littered, unkempt, and inaccessible, Walsall Council continues to show outstanding commitment to keeping our communities clean and safe.
Under Conservative leadership, Walsall has taken decisive action to combat fly-tipping and improve waste management. The results speak for themselves. Walsall’s operational teams work tirelessly to ensure that waste is collected efficiently, with one of the highest performance rates in the country. Over the past year, the council has successfully completed 7 million bin collections on time, achieving an outstanding 99.96% success rate. In a climate where some councils are failing to maintain basic services, this level of dedication is a testament to the commitment of the team in Walsall.
By keeping our streets clean, Walsall isn’t just ensuring a healthier environment – it’s enhancing the quality of life for residents, supporting local businesses, and making the area a more attractive place to live and work.
It is this proactive and community-focused approach that sets Walsall apart from the ongoing challenges faced by neighbouring areas like Birmingham, where waste management issues continue to spiral. Walsall’s model should be a beacon of best practice for other local authorities to follow.
Nationally, the Conservatives took decisive action in government to tackle the scourge of fly-tipping. Under the Antisocial Behaviour Action Plan, we increased the upper limit of on-the-spot fines for fly-tipping to £1,000 in July 2023.
We also supported local authorities to better deliver for their communities. In 2022, we launched the Fly-Tipping grant scheme which awarded £450,000 to crack down on fly-tipping in local communities. Following the success of measures including roadside CCTV, social media campaigns, and targeted surveillance at hotspot areas, we almost doubled the amount of funding available for councils in 2023 to £775,000. Last May we went further and announced a third round of grants which would see 26 local authorities across England benefit from a share of almost £1 million with individual grants of up to £50,000. This is a scheme that we need to build upon and roll out further.
In 2024, our manifesto pledged to punish the polluters by making fly-tipping an offence that carries penalty points against your driving licence. This is a sensible measure that would introduce a further deterrent by directly linking fly-tipping to driving penalties. Individuals and businesses would think twice about offending if they risk losing the ability to drive, possibly allowing us to deter those who may choose to absorb the costs of a fine.
We need a few simple steps to stop the plight of fly-tipping across our communities:
• A national debate and a clear action plan that leads to real, measurable delivery.
• The appointment of a Litter and Fly-tipping Champion in Government to lead a joined-up, cross-departmental approach.
• A strong commitment to education and a zero-tolerance strategy to shift public behaviour.
• And finally – enforcement. We need to move beyond warm words and see concrete actions to tackle this costly and persistent blight on our communities.
This will ensure a cleaner and healthier environment for us all.
We need to move beyond warm words and see concrete actions to tackle the blight fly-tipping
