How London is the capital of England’s flytipping epidemic

Fridges, washing machines… and animal carcasses. These are all among the items illegally dumped in London in a year.

The capital accounted for a staggering 40 per cent of England’s fly-tipping problem in 2014/15.

In the 12-month period to March 2015 there were 16 dumping incidents recorded per 1,000 population in England, the Guardian reports.

Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and Sunderland between them accounted for a further 12 per cent of these.

It cost the ten cities more than £32million in clean-up and enforcement costs, with £25million of that spent in the capital alone.

Across London, the figures included more than 100,000 dumped black bags, almost 10,000 fridges, washing machines and other white goods, and 1,600 animal carcasses.

The east London borough of Newham had the highest rate of fly-tipping per head of population.

Dumping in Lambeth, London

A council spokesman said the increase was partly due to an increased interest and investment in tackle the issue.The number of dumping incidents recorded across England fell to a low of 711,000 between over 12 months to April 2013. But it has risen since. In 2014/15 there were almost 900,000 fly-tipping incidents, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs revealed.

Defra said some of the increase may be down to improvements in recording instances, but said the figures only include dumping on council-owned land.

Richard McIlwain, of Keep Britain Tidy, said local authorities are ebing forced by budget constraints to charge users for recycling facilities.

He said: “Local Authorities are not the bad guys here – they are facing really tough choices.”

But McIlwain also called for stricter enforcement and higher penalties for fly-tippers.

“The maximum penalty that magistrates are allowed to impose is £50,000 and/or a 12-month custodial sentence, yet over 60% of fines are less than £200 and 95% of the fines issued are less than £1,000. Magistrates need to impose stricter penalties to create a real deterrent.”

Prosecutions resulted in fines of less than £600,000 last year.

Pictures from Rex Features