Fly-tippers fined £2,500 for dumping rubbish near their homes

Two women from Ashton have been fined a combined £2,590 for fly-tipping near their homes.

Claire Butler of Kings Road received the heaviest punishment, with Tameside Magistrates’ Court imposing a £1,000 fine, a further £550 in costs and a £440 victim surcharge. 

Enforcement officers from Tameside Council (TMBC) were called to a fly-tipping incident in an alleyway behind Kings Road on October 23, 2023, with evidence among the cardboard boxes and bin bags full of household waste linking back to Butler. 

She was tried in her absence on Monday September 23 after repeatedly failing to pay a fixed penalty notice.  

On the same day, Marie Fairhurst of Whiteacre Road was handed a fine totalling £600 for two offences. 

The first took place in February 2023 when TMBC received a complaint about fly-tipping on Russell Street, which officers linked to Fairhurst. 

A second incident occurred in Stanhope Street on March 16, 2023, and although she was invited to be interviewed under caution both times, the Council says she “ignored all communications”. 

Fairhurst didn’t show at court when originally summoned in January this year and pretested her innocence at last week’s hearing, claiming her landlord had told her to clear the waste and that he would help move it. 

Tameside Council Assistant Executive Member for Enforcement Cllr Hugh Roderick said: “There is absolutely no excuse for flytipping, it blights local neighbourhoods, ruining the appearance of our streets and costing the council thousands of pounds from our very limited budget to clear – this is public money which could instead be spent on vital frontline services supporting residents. 

“We have officers out every day clearing and investigating flytipping and we will always take enforcement action where we find evidence. So far this year we have carried out ten prosecutions in relation to waste offences and issued 271 fixed penalty notices.  

“My thanks goes to our very dedicated officers involved in the work and to all residents who work with us to look after their local areas.” 

TMBC has accelerated prosecutions for fly-tipping in recent months after just three cases came to court for the offence from more than 900 incidents between February and June 2024.