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

Among the 267 councils in England that count all incidents, Central Bedfordshire had the 103rd lowest rate of fly-tipping per resident in 2024/25. Of the 44 ranked councils in the East of England, it had the 20th lowest rate. The count was up 19% on 2023/24 (2,552), against a rise of 9% in Defra's England total.

The region and England columns add up the 44 councils in the East of England 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.

Highways accounted for the most incidents in Central Bedfordshire: 2,157, or 71% (England 33%).

The most common kind of waste was other household waste, in 1,458 incidents (48%; England 44%). Relative to England, Central Bedfordshire had a larger share of chemical drums, oil and fuel (2.0% against 0.5%), asbestos (0.9% against 0.3%) and other commercial waste (8.7% against 2.9%). Hazardous waste: 27 incidents involved asbestos, 5 incidents involved clinical waste and 61 incidents involved chemical drums, oil and fuel. Tyres were dumped in 77 incidents.

35% were a car boot load or less (England 53%). 61% were van loads (England 43%). 93 incidents were the size of a tipper lorry load or larger (3.1%; England 3.7%): 89 tipper lorry loads and 4 significant or multiple loads.

The council took 3,062 enforcement actions against fly-tipping in 2024/25, 101.0 for every 100 incidents (England 42.1, the East of England 43.8). The most common action was investigations (3,031, 99% of all actions; England 68%). It issued 21 fixed penalty notices (0.7% of its actions; England 8.4%): 7 for fly-tipping itself and 14 to householders who passed waste to an unlicensed carrier (household duty of care).

19 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 £750 for early payment. There were 10 prosecutions, and courts issued 11 fines totalling £5,437. Among the 254 councils ranked on enforcement, Central Bedfordshire had the 48th highest rate of actions per 100 incidents and the 42nd lowest share of fixed penalty notices.

The chart shows fly-tipping incidents per 1,000 residents in Central Bedfordshire in each year from 2021/22 to 2024/25, with Defra's England total. The rate was below the England total's in every one of those 4 years. The series starts in 2021/22 because the count went from 670 in 2020/21 to 2,485 in 2021/22 while England's changed by −4%; 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 44 councils in the East of England ranked for 2024/25, Great Yarmouth had the highest rate (76.8 per 1,000) and West Suffolk the lowest (1.5). Great Yarmouth's count went from 1,153 in 2023/24 to 7,720 in 2024/25 while England's changed by +9%, a step that may reflect a change in how the council records fly-tipping. Tendring 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.