Council received more than 6700 reports of fly tipping in a year

Anthony Lewis, Local democracy reporter

A Welsh council received more than 6,700 reports of fly tipping in a year.

Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) saw 6,760 reports from the public between June 2024 and June 2025 related to fly tipping, according to data in a report to the climate change, frontline services and prosperity committee.

The public spaces department received 21,078 reports in that time with littering accounting for 2,630, overgrowth and grass cutting for 2,551, street cleaning for 1,991 and dog fouling for 1,553.

There were 1,288 related to tree issues, 1,171 related to dog fouling bins, 718 related to allotments and 532 related to flooding.

The service received 443 reports about street furniture, 386 about public rights of way, 315 about parks and open spaces, 263 about dead animals, 181 about obstructions and 91 about graffiti.

There were 57 in relation to street care enforcement, 51 about public conveniences, 27 about step cleaning, 23 about fly posting, 19 about weeds, 19 about memorials and nine about biodiversity.

Committee member Councillor Wendy Lewis said fly tipping is a major issue and asked what the costs were to the authority, if there were any areas where people were constantly tipping and if there was anything they could do about that.

Alistair Critchlow the council’s service director for public spaces and integrated transport said it depends on the definition of fly tipping as these figures are taken from the categories people report things through.

Someone leaving one plastic bag of waste by a litter bin could be reported as fly tipping just as it could if they dumped a large amount of waste at Bwlch mountain.

He said there’s a difference between fly tipping and general littering.

He said it was the same for allotments and it could simply be a query about how to get green bags for the allotment, a funding query or a query about fixing a gate.

Mr Critchlow added that the costs for authorities aren’t too much when it comes to cleaning things up on a regular basis and enforcement action.

But he said that they have a very small enforcement team which is still more than what most authorities have.

He also said there is lots of cost involved when it comes to capturing evidence.

Mr Critchlow said: “Quite simply we are clearing whatever we can. We are prosecuting more than anybody else wherever possible.”

He added that the council is constantly putting out new kinds of devices to try and capture some of these incidents that go on but he said it’s about behavioural change.

Mr Critchlow added: “The central issue for me is why on Earth do people think it’s acceptable to dump waste in the first place?”

He said this is a challenge right across the UK.

Steve Williams, the director of environmental services, said it’s becoming a huge problem but like with all decisions they’ve got to use their resources as wisely as possible.

He said that sometimes clearing up something is far cheaper than trying to establish why somebody has fly tipped.

He said the council does the checks to see if they can find any evidence but that it is a costly process and that sometimes even fines don’t fit the crime.

Mr Williams said the council is trying to get the message out there that fly tipping isn’t acceptable and that they will pursue reports.

In terms of the Bwlch mountain, he said it creates a problem in terms of how they access such a sheer drop to safely get the waste from there.

He said it could be contaminated so they have to protect employees.

“It is a real problem. It’s so resource intensive,” he said.

There are six community recycling centres throughout the borough. Mr Williams added: “If you can take it to a remote area to get rid of it why can’t you take it to a CRC because most of the time it’s recyclable material.”