Blyth and Ashington revealed as Northumberland's fly tipping hotspot areas

Northumberland County Council issued 67 fixed penalty notices and successfully completed 44 prosecutions for fly tipping that year.

Data obtained by the Northumberland Gazette shows an estimated £275,000 of Northumberland County Council funds was spent to clean up fly tipped waste in 2023, based on a rate set by the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs.

The county council’s depots in Blyth and in Stakeford, which also covers Ashington, were the busiest by far last year, with 1,880 incidents reported to the Stakeford depot and 1,706 to Blyth.

The next busiest depot, Seaton Valley, handled 226 incidents.

Figures show 300 more incidents were reported in Northumberland in 2023 than in 2022, but fewer incidents were recorded than in 2019, 2020, and 2021.

More than 23,000 reports have been made in the last five years with an estimated cleanup cost of nearly £1.4m. In total, there were 266 fixed penalty notices issued for fly tipping and 152 fly tipping prosecutions by the council in this period.

The county council said it is stepping up its response to fly tipping by working proactively with community partners like town councils, improving CCTV coverage, and increasing fines for perpetrators, and has claimed its controversial bin compounds for the Hirst area of Ashington will help reduce litter.

The council also said it has trained cleansing staff to gather evidence from fly tipped waste to support enforcement and has carried out leaflet drops in hot spot areas informing residents about the disposal of large unwanted items.

Councillor Gordon Stewart, cabinet member for communities, said: “Although rates in Northumberland are one of the lowest in the region there are still a couple of tipping hot spots identified and, as a council, we are absolutely determined to win this battle and ensure our beautiful county remains unspoiled.”

The obligation to ensure waste is disposed of lawfully falls on whoever produces the waste, meaning people that use unlicensed rubbish carriers can be fined if the waste ends up fly tipped.

The council is warning people to be wary of scammers posing as legitimate waste collectors.

Cllr Stewart said: “Our message is loud and clear. If you have lots of rubbish to remove, make sure the waste carrier you employ has a licence and do not trust a ‘white van man’ offering to get rid of your rubbish on the cheap.

“There is a high chance it could go on to be dumped in our beautiful countryside.

“We are appealing to the public to be particularly wary of businesses that only operate through social media and do not seem to have a landline phone number or business address.

“They should also be wary of anyone coming to their door offering to take away rubbish cheaply.”

Fly tipping is illegal and can be reported to the council online at nland.cc/fix or by calling the Environment Agency on 03708506506.