Carrington Recreation ground improved:

Following the disgraceful fly tipping at the recycling centre for Carrington Recreation Ground. Ash Parish Council resolved to install CCTV to monitor the site to combat fly tipping. In a past the full Council meeting in February 2021, Cllr John Tonks explained how over the Christmas period he had examined the cardboard waste and found postal packages with complete address’s suggesting that fly tippers were coming in from outside the Parish. This evidence, complete with postal addresses was given to the Joint Enforcement Team (JET) at Guildford Borough Council (GBC) who advised that this was not evidence enough to take action.

Ash Parish Council had already installed clear signage advising that “If the recycling bins are full, do NOT leave items on the ground. This is Fly Tipping and you will be prosecuted accordingly”. However, Cllr John Tonks recalled watching visitors regularly arriving by car, reading the sign and dumping their items anyway.

Since the installation of CCTV, adherence to the signage is now being more closely followed and as a result items are no longer being fly tipped by placing them next to the bins as regularly. If this does occur, the CCTV footage will be reviewed and sent to JET to take further action.

Cllr John Tonks told Ash Parish News, “I am pleased that these cameras have worked well so far as the situation was getting ridiculous. Surrey has many Community Recycling Centres (aka dumps) nearby and most have remained open through the COVID-19 pandemic. There is no excuse for this behaviour and having seen this with my own eyes I believe the perpetrators involved had the experience to know better. GBC visit these sites multiple times per week and so if it’s full, please come back later in the week, visit a CRC or make use of our excellent waste collection services. You can order an additional recycling bin at no extra cost, place cardboard next to your green bin or place small carrier bags of recycling next to your green bin if you have extra recycling that week.”

Fines and penalties

Fly-tipping is against the law and those convicted face fines and penalties which vary depending on the degree of the offence.

• Fly-tippers can face fines of up to £50,000 and imprisonment of up to twelve months if convicted in a magistrates’ court, more severe cases receiving convictions in a crown court can be given an unlimited fine and up to five years’ imprisonment.
• As well as fines, fly-tippers may have to cover expensive legal costs.
• Vehicles can be seized or crushed and fly-tippers can be disqualified from driving.
• They may be sentenced to unpaid community service.
• Those who employ a trader that fly-tips could also be fined up to £400.

There has been a 36% increase in prosecutions for fly-tipping in Surrey over the last year. Prosecutions and fines help reduce fly-tipping to ensure council tax money is spent on other priorities, instead of clearing up fly-tipped waste.

Check a waste carrier’s licence

If you are paying someone to get rid of your household waste, you can check if a waste carrier is registered by looking on the Environment Agency’s public register or by calling 03708 506 506. All businesses and traders who transport waste are legally required to have a waste carrier’s licence.

If you think that a trader isn’t disposing of waste correctly there are two things you can do:

Call the Environment Agency hotline on 0800 80 70 60.
Report your concerns anonymously to Crimestoppers online.

How to report fly-tipping

If its happening right now

If you see fly-tipping in progress, please call 999 and ask for the police. Please do not engage with the fly-tipper(s).

If a road is blocked

Report fly-tipping on the highway to Surrey County Council via the highway issue reporting page. https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/roadworks-and-maintenance/report-a-highway-problem. Here choose “Obstruction on the road or pavement (e.g. fly tipping)”.

If you have found fly-tipped items

If you’ve found fly-tipping in Ash Parish please report it to Guildford Borough council using their online reporting page https://www.guildford.gov.uk/flytipping