Rochdale has one of the biggest fly-tipping problems in Greater Manchester

Fly-tipping is a scourge of the community and a crime all councils are keen to clamp down on. 

Despite their best efforts, Greater Manchester councils have seen 93,629 fly-tipping incidents reported between 2020 and 2022.

According to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) data, five boroughs saw a reduction in 2021/2022 compared to the previous year - but five saw an increase.

GM areas provided a large chunk of the total 128,426 incidents recorded across the north west in 2021/22 – down from 140,220 in the previous year.

As well as posing significant and environmental health risks, fly-tipping can be a legal and financial burden. Local authorities are usually left to clean up the mess left by fly-tippers, which means the taxpayer is picking up the bill for people too lazy to dispose of their rubbish properly.

DEFRA data estimates it costs on average £1,000, and £10,000 for large-scale incidents to clean up. Most councils use fines as enforcement action and have taken people to court over the matter.

Here is how each GM borough ranks in terms of total fly-tipping incidents between the start of 2020 and the end of 2022:

• Manchester – 28,890
• Rochdale – 11,583
• Salford – 11,190
• Tameside – 9,165
• Oldham – 7,475
• Stockport – 7,153
• Bury – 6,631
• Trafford – 6,037
• Wigan – 3,071
• Bolton – 2,434

Rochdale has put its high numbers down to their system recording incidents twice due to multiple callouts to the same area. Rochdale Council’s approach to dealing with the issue is through education and fines.

In 2021/22 there were 6,241 reports, which is an increase on the previous year at 5,342.

A Rochdale Council spokesperson said: “There has been a small increase in fly-tipping figures reported, but the actual amount of tonnages collected has reduced by more than 32 tonnes from the previous year. This reduction has had a positive impact and meant we have spent less on disposal costs.

“The figures reported are also due to our rapid response and proactive work in removing fly-tipping. We can often respond to a small fly-tip, then additional waste is added to the same location, resulting in the same fly-tip being reported twice.

“We work extremely hard in educating our residents on the importance of checking for waste carriers’ licences and promoting the council’s free bulky waste collections, which has made a huge impact on the amount of potential waste that could have ended up on our streets.

“We continue to charge offenders by serving formal cautions and on-the-spot Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) when evidence is found, as we will not tolerate fly-tipping in our borough.”

George Lythgoe, Local Democracy Reporter