Hull City Council announces hike in fines for fly-tipping, littering and other environmental crimes

Hull City Council Environment Portfolio Holder Coun Julia Connor said anyone caught fly-tipping in Hull could face a £,100 fine after hikes were backed on Monday (December 18).

Coun Connor added the crackdown came alongside £1m which had been made available to communities to clean up their areas through the Love Your Neighbourhood scheme. It comes as the council’s Cabinet backed more than doubling the penalty for fly-tipping and hiking fines for littering, graffiti and fly-posting.

Hikes which come into force from the start of 2024, would see people fined up to £1,000 for fly-tipping, or £800 if they pay early, up from the current £400. Those caught littering would face penalties up to £150, up from £100 currently, but they would be reduced to £120 if paid early.

Fines for graffiti and fly-posting, putting up posters without permission, have gone up from £100 to up to £500, with early payment reducing them to £400.

It comes after the Government introduced new national regulations in July which allowed councils to increase fixed penalties for environmental offences. A council report stated there were more than 17,000 incidents of fly-tipping in Hull last year, with offences costing an estimated £500,000-a-year to clean up on average. A total of 319 fixed penalty notices were issued for the offences.

Fines for littering totalled £46,462 following the appearance of 100 people before the courts in July after they refused to pay fixed penalty notices. A total of 3,475 fixed penalty notices were issued in 2022, with 1,575 paid and £133,930 collected. No fines were issued for graffiti and five were for fly-posting, largely because it is harder to catch the perpetrators according to the report.

Coun Connor said the increase in penalties approved this week marked the start of an effort against crimes that make communities look untidy.

The portfolio holder said: “Wed voted to increase fines for fly-tipping and graffiti to the maximum the government will allow. This means anyone caught fly-tipping could now face a huge £1,000 bill and those who are caught doing graffiti could face a £500 fine.

“Residents tell us they want Hull’s streets to be cleaner, so we are launching a campaign against those who want to dump rubbish and make our communities untidy. Increasing these fines will help make Hull a cleaner city.”