Fly tipping in London was among the subjects in the September 2026 edition of Professional Security Magazine. While dumping of waste illegally is hardly only carried out in the capital, it’s particularly noticeable, and annoys residents – making it a priority for London boroughs. Here’s the latest.
As this latest prosecution by Enfield Council in north London shows (see the Enfield website), councils do have in-house assets at their disposal – re-deployable CCTV cameras to capture crimes at known hot-spots for dumping. A London Assembly evidence-gathering session at City Hall on July 15, featured in September’s magazine, heard that – while not excusing dumping – a factor in how much dumping goes on is how easy it is for residents and businesses to legally dispose of what they don’t want. The session heard how litter and dumped items – whether furniture left by people moving home or ‘white van man’ dumping rubble and other contractor waste no-questions-asked – contribute to residents’ feeling of a lack of community safety. Hence an unnamed resident in Greenwich borough in south-east London went so far as to video a fly-tipper dumping business waste into communal bins in a Thamesmead estate, now fined ยฃ1,000 (see more on the Greenwich website).
Examples
Hence Enfield offer residents a free bulky waste collection from their doorstep, and two facilities for the disposal of household waste.ย Likewiseย in east London, Mayor of Newham Forhad Hussain recently announced the return of the free bulky waste collection service for every home in the borough from September. He said: โSince becoming Mayor, I have been clear that we must tackle fly-tipping head on. Weโve started by doubling the fines for those caught illegally dumping their waste, making it clear that there are consequences for this behaviour.” And Hillingdon Council has crushed the first vehicle linked to illegal dumping in the west London borough.
Contract
Enforcement, then, is necessary, as a report on a proposed borough-wide environmental enforcement services contract for Haringey in north London sets out ahead of the Cabinet meeting on September 15. The report went so far as to speak of a ‘waste crisis’: “Residents are rightly angry: dumped waste blights the borough, stops people enjoying where they live, and makes streets feel less safe.” Hence the council awarded such a contract in February 2026 to Kingdom Services Group. Like other such contracts, it’s described as ‘cost-neutral’ to the council; the contractor has the concession and the financial risk; it makes its money from a share of the fines given to those caught littering and dumping; ‘it is anticipated that the value of the contract will exceed ยฃ500,000’, according to the report. While most residents in most places say that they are in favour of penalties for waste dumping and littering (and on pet owners for dog fouling), some such contracts have proved controversial, as patrollers can feel financial incentives to issue fines no matter what – such as gifting unwanted items outside, feeding pigeons, or putting cigarette butts in bin bags on the street; as the report acknowledges. It states that ‘without a strong ethical framework, enforcement can be unnecessarily punitive. We will therefore strive for a contract that focuses on serious and wilful offences rather than minor transgressions and honest mistakes’.ย The proposed new contract will again be ‘cost-neutral’ to the council. As for Haringey’s other options, notably taking littering patrols in-house, the report noted that it was between 2018 and 2024, yet ‘was unable to meet its full potential’ due to the sheer amount of work, and the cost of the service was ‘unaffordable’. Meanwhile, in a year Kingdom issued just over 10,000 FPNs (fixed penalty notices, local government jargon for fines), and the paid FPNs amounted to ยฃ980,000. Under a new contract, Haringey (which at the May 2026 council election went to a administration) wants the contract to ‘focus more on tackling fly tipping offences using evidence gathered from our front-line fly tipping teams’.
Consultation
Meanwhile Defra, the Department for the Environment, has gone out to consultation, about proposed introducing powers for local authorities to issue conditional cautions to fly-tipping offenders. Replying, the Countryside Alliance has doubted that that alone will solve fly tipping.
Photo by Mark Rowe; on street signage, Islington, north London.
