Businessman fined after his rubbish is flytipped

The rubbish, which mainly consisted of plasterboard and packaging for electrical items (pictured), was dumped in Houghton Lane in Stoughton. When Harborough District Council investigated the incident, they traced the flytipping back to a business in Leicester.

The business owner, in his late 30s and from Leicester, admitted the offence when interviewed by the investigation team in June 2019 and was issued with a £300 fine for failing to check whether the person removing the waste was registered with a waste carriers licence.

It is the third flytipping fine issued by Harborough District Council in just over a month.

Householders are legally responsible for any household waste produced on their property. They have a ‘duty of care’ to check that any person or business disposing of  waste on their behalf is legally allowed to do so.

Councillor Jonathan Bateman, Harborough District Council’s portfolio holder for environment and regulatory services, said: “Flytipping blights our district but thanks to the fantastic efforts of our investigation team we have issued three fines in recent weeks to those responsible for letting it happen. This underlines the Council’s commitment to doing all we can to tackle this issue across the district.”

There are several ways to dispose of the waste that cannot go into wheeled bins:

• Take large waste items to your local recycling and waste site (tip)
• Use a licensed waste carrier to remove your waste - it is a legal requirement to use a licensed waste carrier (you can also check if someone has a licence on the Environment Agency website)
• The Council’s large waste items for collection service allows for up to three large household items or 12 sacks of waste to be collected for a charge of £34.17

Find out more at www.harborough.gov.uk/tip-off