Forum Topic

Sainsbury's fly tipping

Seems that nowhere is safe from the fly tippers now. The space that used to house the recycling facilities was fly tipped today when I shopped there. When I asked an assistant instore she was surprised but clearly hadn't been told by management. Seemingly coming to any space near you wherever you are!

Peter King ● 1d9 Comments

I'm not going to disagree that LBHF have low numbers of formal court prosecutions ( 2 in the last 5 years) but that's 2 more prosecutions than most of the other london boroughs over the same period.In terms of prosecutions, Enfield has by far the largest number, the only area in which Ealing leads the way is in the number of formal cautions they have issued.Are you sure you aren't mistaking Enfield for Ealing?

Andrew Jones ● 41m

Have to say, Richmond Upon Thames didn't strike me as a likely place where a lot of fly tipping goes on, so the statistics I found slightly surprised me. Mind you, what one council counts as fly tipping isn't necessarily what another council would consider to be fly tipping, which we've seem with some examples of over enthusiatic enforcement.

Andrew Jones ● 1h

“The top ten worst areas are:* Croydon: 53,268 cases* Camden: 36,216 cases* Lewisham: 33,471 cases* Hackney: 31,042 cases* Newham: 26,502 cases* Nottingham: 26,138 cases* Ealing: 25,394 cases* Hounslow: 25,177 cases* Birmingham: 24,664 cases* West Northamptonshire: 21,304 casesCroydon historically records the highest total volume of fly-tipping incidents in both London and England, with over 53,000 cases reported in the latest DEFRA figures. However, the London boroughs that see the highest rates of formal prosecution are Ealing (which frequently issues over 3,600 Fixed Penalty Notices and enforces unpaid ones through court), Westminster (processing the highest volume of commercial waste fines), and Brent.Hammersmith & Fulham Council utilizes a strategy of aggressive Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) and dense CCTV monitoring instead of formal fly-tipping prosecutions. While the council records a high volume of illegal waste incidents, official DEFRA data shows they historically record zero to minimal formal court prosecutions”

Steve Taylor ● 1h

It's nothing to do with the effectiveness of enforcement, Andrew. It's all about civics. Better-class communities, such as in Richmond, don't go in for fly-tipping! Hence Steve's evident pride in his borough.

Robert Fish ● 2h

"Hammersmith & Fulham have the lowest prosecution rate."Mmmmm ... where do you get your statistics from Steve?https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/fly-tipping-incidents-e5myg/Paints a very different picture!For 2024/2025 LBHF supposedly issued over 2000 PCNs for 8087 recorded incidents, a much higher %age (25%+) than Ealing (10% ish), Hounslow ( almost 0%) and ( whisper it quietly!) even your beloved Richmond upon Thames (around 1%).

Andrew Jones ● 3h

Ealing started checking rubbish and identifying and prosecuting flytippers years ago. They now have the highest prosecution rate of any London Borough by far. Hammersmith & Fulham have the lowest prosecution rate. Hounslow simply clear up the fly tipping IF it is reported and is on a public highway. It’s doubtful they would clear it from Sainsbury’s because that’s private land.

Steve Taylor ● 4h

Well done Ealing.

Janice Evans ● 7h

Stopped clock syndrome comes into effect and Steve Taylor is right. More pertinent here though is the policy of Ealing which actively uses CCTV to catch professional flytippers and you can literally look across the borough border at this mess in the car park. Hounslow's policy seems to be to brand people who it claims have committed relatively minor littering offences as flytippers, give them huge fines and call that a crackdown. I couldn't find any evidence of recent prosecutions by Hounslow of any real flytippers. The people who have done this at Sainsbury's will have driven past an ANPR camera.

Francis Rowe ● 9h

In Richmond they prosecute fly tippers. In Chiswick they don’t so it’s a fly tippers paradise. There are plenty of security cameras so Hounslow Council could very easily prosecute the criminals if they wanted to. But they’d rather go after motorists and fine them for parking violations.

Steve Taylor ● 19h