Fly-tipping in Cheshire West and Chester council area: incidents, enforcement and fines

Among the 267 councils in England that count all incidents, Cheshire West and Chester had the 126th lowest rate of fly-tipping per resident in 2024/25. Of the 31 ranked councils in the North West, it had the 10th lowest rate. The count was up 59% on 2023/24 (2,524), against a rise of 9% in Defra's England total.

The region and England columns add up the 31 councils in the North West 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.

15% of incidents were on highways, against 33% across England. 49 were on private or residential land (1.2%; England 1.1%). Compared with England, a larger share was on railway land (2.1% against 0.2%) and commercial or industrial land (1.3% against 0.3%). The council did not identify the land type for 37% of incidents.

The most common kind of waste was black bags (household), in 599 incidents (15%; England 17%). Relative to England, Cheshire West and Chester had a larger share of black bags (commercial) (13.4% against 2.4%), other commercial waste (13.6% against 2.9%) and asbestos (0.6% against 0.3%). Hazardous waste: 25 incidents involved asbestos, 10 incidents involved clinical waste and 35 incidents involved chemical drums, oil and fuel. The waste type was not identified for 38% of incidents.

44% were a car boot load or less (England 53%). 48% were van loads (England 43%). 352 incidents were the size of a tipper lorry load or larger (8.8%; England 3.7%): 345 tipper lorry loads and 7 significant or multiple loads.

The council took 1,661 enforcement actions against fly-tipping in 2024/25, 41.3 for every 100 incidents (England 42.1, the North West 64.9). The most common action was investigations (1,381, 83% of all actions; England 68%). It issued 129 fixed penalty notices (7.8% of its actions; England 8.4%): 28 for fly-tipping itself, 7 for littering alongside fly-tipping and 94 of other kinds.

49 fixed penalty notices were recorded as paid in the year. The council told Defra that its fixed penalty for fly-tipping is £400, reduced to £250 for early payment. There were 7 prosecutions, and courts issued 6 fines totalling £2,238. Among the 254 councils ranked on enforcement, Cheshire West and Chester had the 123rd highest rate of actions per 100 incidents and the 86th highest share of fixed penalty notices.

The chart shows fly-tipping incidents per 1,000 residents in Cheshire West and Chester in each year from 2022/23 to 2024/25, with Defra's England total. The rate was below the England total's in every one of those 3 years. The series starts in 2022/23 because the count went from 4,762 in 2021/22 to 2,340 in 2022/23 while England's changed by −1%; 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 31 councils in the North West ranked for 2024/25, Pendle had the highest rate (62.0 per 1,000) and Halton the lowest (3.6). Bolton, Burnley and St. Helens are 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.