People in Wales involved in fly-tipping could face a fixed penalty notice of £300.
Assembly Members are voting on the new rules which would make it easier for councils to issue the notices.
Councils are already allowed to issue penalty notices against individuals who fly tip themselves, but this measure would introduce a charge against individuals who let others fly tip on their behalf. This applies to people like family members and rogue builders.
According to the Welsh Government, more than 60% of fly-tipping incidents originate from domestic properties. They also say it cost Welsh taxpayers £2m to clean-up fly-tipping in 2017-18.
The figures also show that Cardiff had the highest number of reported cases of fly-tipping last year with 5,928. Newport was second highest with 3,588 cases of fly-tipping reported.
Gareth Bennett, UKIP Wales leader and Assembly Member for South Wales central said that his party would be voting against the motion. “Flytipping is a big problem, but I’m not sure that bringing in more regulations will do anything to solve it. Maybe they should look at not charging people for taking stuff to a tip and being recycled”.
He continued “If they want more recycling to take place, then surely they should do what they can to enable people to recycle. I think they’re confused – why put objects in front of recycling? I think it’s because councils want to raise money, but if people avoid this by fly-tipping then that isn’t a good outcome”.
The bill includes a measure to reduce the notice cost to £150 if the bill is paid promptly.
AMs will vote on the measure tonight, and it’s expected to pass with Welsh Government support
