Kirklees Council is to press for tougher sentences for fly-tipping.

The council is currently drawing up a fly-tipping strategy to tackle a growing problem that costs councils across the country £100 million a year.

Fly-tipping has increased by 20% nationally in the last five years and over the summer a big backlog built up in Kirklees.

In September there was a backlog of 1,401 incidents with a 12-week wait for waste to be cleared.

A meeting of the council’s Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Panel was told that there was no “silver bullet” to solve the complex issues behind the dumping of waste.

From students moving into their first home and ditching a mattress to unscrupulous traders taking money to remove household waste only to dump it on a secluded country lane, there are many culprits behind fly-tipping.

And, the meeting was told, some people don’t see fly-tipping as a criminal offence.

Almondbury Liberal Democrat councillor David Longstaff, an experienced magistrate in Huddersfield, said he would be pushing the Government for tougher sentences.

He said magistrates’ hands were tied when it came to sentencing fly-tippers and “more leeway” was needed.

“I would love to give someone 28 days in prison,” he said. “And that would certainly make the news! However, they’d appeal my decision and I’d get overruled because I’m outside my bandwidth.”

He added: “I always tell my colleagues, as a councillor, the one big issue that affects people’s quality of life is fly-tipping.

“We need to lobby our MPs, the Home Secretary and the Sentencing Council because people would rather take the risk of getting a fine than paying to have their waste disposed of properly.”

Katherine Armitage, the council’s service director for environment and climate change, said fly-tipping was a complex issue with many causes and the solution wasn’t as simple as CCTV at dumping hotspots.

That was why the council was drawing up a strategy and looking at the reasons and psychology behind why fly-tipping was happening.

The fly-tipping backlog in Kirklees had now been reduced to around 300 with a wait time of four weeks. The aim was to have cleared the backlog by Christmas and have a response time of three weeks.

Ms Armitage said the response time couldn’t be too quick because if people saw their rubbish being removed within days they would be tempted to dump some more.

Clr John Taylor (Con, Kirkburton) pointed out that clearing the backlog had only been possible because money set aside for introducing bin collections over Christmas had been diverted.

The council had wanted to introduce Christmas bin collections but the trade unions wouldn’t agree.

Two of the fly-tipping solutions being considered by the council are police-style crime scene investigation tape and slogans stencilled on walls at dumping hotspots.

Both have proved very successful elsewhere in the country and are currently being trialled on a project with Keep Britain Tidy in Heckmondwike.

The new strategy could be completed in early 2026.

Council tax in Kirklees to rise by the maximum 4.99% but Town Hall finances have ‘stabilised’