The city council has been criticised for its inaction against fly-tipping after Norwich was named the worst in the country for penalising people dumping unwanted items.
Norwich City Council was ranked 267th out of 267 local authorities for fly-tipping enforcement rates, according to government figures.
This has led to deputy leader of the Greens at City Hall, Alex Catt, slamming the council for its “lack of action” against fly-tipping and calling for a “more proactive enforcement” to combat the problem.
But the council has hit back saying it takes the issue seriously and that the number of penalty notices given has increased in the last year.
BOTTOM OF THE TABLE
Government statistics, which were published in March, ranked Norwich City Council 267th out of 267 local authorities for fly-tipping enforcement rates.
It revealed that fines were only given out for one in every 5,000 cases of fly-tipping between April 2022 to March 2023 - just 0.02pc.
Even more recent figures also do not paint a positive picture.
Between July 2023 to July 2024 there were 6,848 incidents of fly-tipping reported but less than 1pc resulted in a fine.
Cllr Catt said: "The council's lack of action has put us at the bottom of the table.
"This result comes as no surprise when it was recently confirmed that collection crews don't look for evidence when collecting fly-tipping.
"It also relies on people living in areas of fly-tipping to search for, and report, evidence before they carry out any investigations.
"Recently leadership listed their action on fly-tipping as one of the highlights of their recent work.
"There has to be more proactive enforcement and we want to know how long will it be before we have a council that can actually deliver on the basics and keep our city clean."
'WE TAKE IT SERIOUSLY'
The council pointed out that despite Norwich having the lowest percentage of fines per incident, 42 other local authorities also recorded less than 1pc.
City Hall also stressed penalty notices had increased since last year.
A spokesman said: "Our rubbish collection services involve teams of people working across the city every day.
"Since 2023 we have issued 11 penalty notices, carried out nearly 100 investigations and issued more than 50 warning letters.
"In addition 95pc of reported incidences are cleared within 24 hours.
"Removing fly-tipping is part of this service and one we take very seriously.
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"We invested £100,000 into our Love Norwich Fund last year, specifically to tackle fly-tipping, graffiti and littering through a series of measures.
"This also includes the recent 24/7 instalment of CCTV cameras in fly-tipping hotspots."
LOVE NORWICH PROCESSING ISSUE
The Love Norwich campaign launched in November 2022 and aims to tackle environmental anti-social behaviour through enforcement and improved facilities.
However earlier this year council officers admitted that a "data processing issue" had led to them thinking instances of fly-tipping had fallen by 14pc from 2022 to 2023.
The blunder had the council believe that cases of fly-tipping had dropped from 6,935 in 2022, to 5,963 in 2023.
It was later revealed that fly-tipping had actually increased by 8pc in that time, with the total incidents in 2022 actually being 5,520.
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Officers said this was due to several months of incidents in 2022 being duplicated within the computer system, resulting in a "spike" in the data.
It has since led to questions being asked about how the £100,000 Love Norwich fund, designated to tackle the issue, is being spent.
COUNCIL UNDER FIRE
Norwich City Council has come under fire for some of the ways it has handled fly-tipping.
Most recently neighbours in Knowland Grove were furious after CCTV was removed near a fly-tipping hotspot leaving the area "an absolute mess" with rubbish in communal bins piling up.
In February Claire Angelina, who lives in Bowthorpe with her two sons Adam, six and Ryan, nine decided to take matters into their own hands and clean up around their home.
Claire said: "The council could learn a thing or two with the work my boys have done."
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