Rochdale has second highest number of fly-tipping incidents in Greater Manchester

More incidents of fly-tipping occurred in Rochdale than almost anywhere else in Greater Manchester with over 5,000 recorded instances in 2018/19.

Statistics recently released by Defra show Rochdale had the most recorded incidents outside of the Manchester region, with 5,218 occurrences of fly-tipping taking place throughout the past year – 12% of those in Greater Manchester.

Of the 42,366 incidents in Greater Manchester, almost half (45%) were recorded in the borough of Manchester.

Numbers had increased from the previous year 2017/2018 from a total of 4,219 recorded incidents in Rochdale.

The majority of fly-tipping incidents took place on highway locations in Rochdale (2,111), followed by back alleyway areas (1,267). Council land also had a high level of incidents with 884 recorded, and footpaths and bridleways saw 822 fly-tipping incidents.

Household waste is the highest-recorded type of waste that is fly-tipped in Rochdale. Overall, household waste incidents made up 4,190 of the total recorded number.

The most common size category of fly-tipping in Rochdale was equivalent to a ‘small van load’ with 1,594 incidents recorded of this size. The second most common is equivalent to a ‘transit van load’ with 1,273 cases recorded.

There were 904 incidents of a ‘tipper lorry’ size category, with a clearance cost of £287,700 – an average of £317 each. It also cost £12,510 to clear 35 ‘significant/multi load’ size incidents of fly-tipping, or £357 per load.

The amount of fly-tipping cases recorded in Rochdale in 2018/2019 is significantly high in comparison to other boroughs of Greater Manchester.

Just 1,004 incidents were recorded in Bolton and 1,501 in Tameside.

The area with the next highest number of recorded fly-tipping incidents was the neighbouring borough of Oldham (3,042), followed by Trafford (2,905) and Stockport (2,663).

Out of the total 5,218 recorded incidents of fly-tipping in Rochdale, there was a total of 1,406 actions taken – just over a quarter (27%) and 376 of these were investigation actions.

These statistics show that despite an increase in the amount of illegal tipping, the number of actions taken has decreased significantly from the previous year 2017/2018.

Last year, there were 2,119 actions taken against fly-tipping.

In fact, Rochdale had the second-lowest number of actions taken with Bury having the least amount (395) regardless of having the highest recorded fly-tipping incidents.

There were over one million recorded occurrences of fly-tipping nationally in the year 2018/2019, and 112,069 in the North West.

Martin Taylor, Head of Environmental Services, said: “It’s disappointing to see the number of incidents rise as they are both unsightly and costly to the tax payer. But residents can be reassured that we take environmental crimes like fly-tipping extremely seriously and investigate all incidents.

“We prosecute where evidence can be found and we frequently issue fixed penalty notices to recover the high cost of these fly-tipping incidents. It’s pleasing that we’ve had many successful prosecutions recently and this should serve as a warning to others.”