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Fly-tipping fines are set to rocket 400% in Newry, Mourne and Down almost two years after new penalty powers were given to councils.
The sustainability and environment committee this week signed off on setting the maximum fixed penalty notice at £400, a rise from £80.
However, the new hike in fines has been criticised as a “small price to pay” for criminals profiting from illegally dumping “bin lorry” loads of waste in the district.
Downpatrick Councillor Cadogan Enright said: “Can I get some clarification on the use of the new enforcement powers?
“In the past legislation was if you find fly-tipping of rubbish and receipts in it, officers would have to go to the address and effectively have them (offenders) admit it.
“To find the receipt in the rubbish isn’t enough to get a prosecution.
“Whereas in other parts of these islands you have to show you have reported the theft of your rubbish to police before you can escape responsibility and prosecution for it.
“Is there anything around the new legislation that will allow us to get around these sorts of obstacles, could we get cameras in fly-tipping hotspots?
NMDDC is behind some other local authorities in Northern Ireland with councils such as Lisburn and Castlereagh agreeing to the new fines in October 2023.
The increase in penalties are provided through the Waste and Contaminated Land Act, which came into effect in January last year.
Minimum fines for illegal dumping will now be £100 with the maximum fine of £400 lowering to £300 if paid within 14 days.
Slieve Gullion Councillor David Taylor added: “There are certain black-spots in the district that are recurring problems for this type of issue.
“I know in my own area I am reporting the issue on a regular basis of fly-tipping spots.
“I understand how difficult it can be to catch anybody involved in this because of the lack of evidence. But do we have any figures for the clean up costs associated with this type of activity?
“On occasions it can be quite serious in terms of the level of rubbish that is dumped, sometimes £400 seems a small price to pay for that type of crime, particularly when the clean up cost could be considerably more. As the people doing the dumping are probably saving themselves quite a bit of money fly-tipping.”
A council officer responded: “The recommendation before the committee is around giving fixed penalty notices on the information that you find when the offence has already been confirmed.
“What we are saying is this is considerably more of a fine when dealing with large scale issues of dumping that we would regularly be investigating across the district.
“We will definitely take on board the amount of the fine in terms of small scale versus large scale dumping that being the contents of a bin lorry and that is where we come in under Article 4 commonly referred to as fly-tipping.”
