The British Cleaning Council has welcomed the introduction of new fixed penalty notices, but says the fines should be even higher.

From May 9th local authorities can issue on-the-spot penalty notices for small-scale offences such as dumping pieces of broken furniture, old televisions or mattresses.

The new fines, of between £150 and £400, will allow Council’s to deal with these kind of offences quickly and efficiently, without the need to take offenders to court, helping them tackle a growing problem that is costing nearly £50 million a year to deal with.

BCC Chairman, Simon Hollingbery, said: “Fly tipping is littering on a grand scale and to this end the fines should be a lot greater, as 9 out 10 fly tipping is from people making money out of taking rubbish  away and not paying the land fill charge to dispose of it properly. Nevertheless these new powers should make people think twice before committing an illegal act.”

Government figures suggest councils are dealing with around 900,000 fly-tipping incidents annually, an increase of almost 6% between 2013/14 and 2014/15

The BCC is currently working closely with Keep Britain Tidy, and the Tidy Britain All Party Parliamentary Group, as part of the governments national litter strategy.