Fly-tipping in Boston council area: incidents, enforcement and fines

Among the 267 councils in England that count all incidents, Boston had the 11th highest rate of fly-tipping per resident in 2024/25. Of the 34 ranked councils in the East Midlands, it had the 2nd highest rate. The count was down 15% on 2023/24 (5,500), against a rise of 9% in Defra's England total.

The region and England columns add up the 35 councils in the East Midlands and the 269 in England that count all incidents. In England, 26 councils that count only some incidents or changed how they count during the year, and 1 with no figure, are left out. The enforcement figures also leave out 4 councils that returned no actions or only part of a year: Isles of Scilly, Cheltenham, Chorley and Liverpool.

Footpaths and bridleways accounted for the most incidents in Boston (1,920, 41%). 4% of incidents were on highways, against 33% across England. 320 were on private or residential land (6.8%; England 1.1%).

Compared with England, a larger share was on agricultural land (7.8% against 0.3%) and watercourses and banks (2.6% against 0.2%). The council did not identify the land type for 28% of incidents.

The most common kind of waste was black bags (household), in 2,475 incidents (53%; England 17%). Relative to England, Boston had a larger share of animal carcasses (0.7% against 0.3%) and tyres (1.7% against 1.1%). Hazardous waste: 8 incidents involved asbestos and 13 incidents involved chemical drums, oil and fuel.

75% were a car boot load or less (England 53%). 24% were van loads (England 43%). 42 incidents were the size of a tipper lorry load or larger (0.9%; England 3.7%): 27 tipper lorry loads and 15 significant or multiple loads.

The council took 463 enforcement actions against fly-tipping in 2024/25, 9.9 for every 100 incidents (England 42.1, the East Midlands 54.5). The most common action was investigations (391, 84% of all actions; England 68%). It issued 67 fixed penalty notices (14.5% of its actions; England 8.4%): 26 for fly-tipping itself and 41 to householders who passed waste to an unlicensed carrier (household duty of care).

2 fixed penalty notices were recorded as paid in the year. The council told Defra that its fixed penalty for fly-tipping is £1,000, reduced to £550 for early payment. No prosecutions were recorded. Among the 254 councils ranked on enforcement, Boston had the 49th lowest rate of actions per 100 incidents and the 55th highest share of fixed penalty notices.

The chart shows fly-tipping incidents per 1,000 residents in Boston in each year from 2020/21 to 2024/25, with Defra's England total. The rate was above the England total's in every one of those 5 years. The series starts in 2020/21 because the count went from 1,245 in 2019/20 to 3,316 in 2020/21 while England's changed by +16%; a step that large (more than double or less than half England's change) is treated here as a change in how the council records fly-tipping, so earlier years are not compared.

Councils record fly-tipping in different ways and some have changed how they record it, so a rise or fall can reflect recording as well as dumping.

Of the 34 councils in the East Midlands ranked for 2024/25, Nottingham had the highest rate (78.9 per 1,000) and Erewash the lowest (2.1). Oadby and Wigston is listed but not ranked: ranks cover only councils that count all incidents, with 100 or more in the year.

About these figures: source, Defra, fly-tipping statistics for England, local authority table (published 25 February 2026), gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. An incident is an illegal deposit of waste that a council dealt with or had reported to it, from a single black bag to multiple lorry loads; councils return the figures to Defra through WasteDataFlow each quarter.

Most fly-tipping on private land is cleared by the landowner and is not counted, and the largest and most organised dumping is dealt with by the Environment Agency, which is not included. Since 2019/20 Defra has recorded whether each council counts all incidents or only those reported by the public or found by its own staff. Councils that count only some incidents record fewer, so they, and councils that changed how they count during the year, are not ranked here. Sizes are recorded for the incidents a council investigated and cleared, so they can add up to fewer than all incidents.

Enforcement actions include investigations, warning letters, fixed penalty notices and prosecutions; court fine figures exclude fixed penalty payments. Rates are per resident, so council areas where many people work or visit but few live, such as central London, have high rates for that reason.

Rates use the population in Defra's table (ONS mid-year estimates). Defra's England total includes every council and its estimates for missing returns. On this page the England and region comparisons add up only the councils that count all incidents, and their enforcement figures leave out councils that returned no actions or only part of a year, as the ranks do; the chart's England line is Defra's total.