Fly Tipping

What is it?

Fly tipping is the dumping of materials where they shouldn't be, specifically on a verge, public path, byway, or road. For many such routes, the Environmental Protection Act 1990 provides the means to have the tipping removed from a highway maintainable at public expense.

How does it work?

1. Identify the path that the fly tipping is on. Check whether it existed prior to 1959 (if a footpath or bridleway) or was the subject of a creation order or agreement or diversion order or was a reclassified RUPP or has otherwise been adopted.
Example: Sarratt 80 bridleway was created by a public path creation agreement entered into by the Patchetts Green Bridleways Trust CIO and the Hertfordshire County Council on 22 July 2021.

2. Confirm the maintainability status of the route.
Example: Section 36(2)(d) Highways Act 1980 provides that a bridleway created by means of a public path creation agreement shall be a highway maintainable at the public expense.

3. Section 86(9) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 provides that every highway maintainable at the public expense other than a trunk road which is a special road is a ‘relevant highway’, and the local authority which is ‘responsible’ for so much of it as lies within its area is, subject to any order under subsection (11), the council of the district.

4. Section 89(2) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 provides that it is the duty of each local authority as respects any relevant highway for which it is responsible to ensure that the highway is, so far as is practicable, kept clean.

Constraints

If the route is not a highway maintainable at public expense, the cost of clearing the fly tipping usually falls on the landowner.

Example

Asbestos waste was dumped at the end of Sarratt 80 bridleway in November 2023. The Three Rivers District Council wrote to the landowners (the Patchetts Green Bridleways Trust) to ask them to remove the waste. PGBT was able to show that the responsibility rested on the district council, because the route was maintainable at the public expense.