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

Among the 267 councils in England that count all incidents, East Staffordshire had the 134th highest rate of fly-tipping per resident in 2024/25. Of the 27 ranked councils in the West Midlands, it had the 13th lowest rate. The count was up 25% on 2023/24 (1,171), against a rise of 9% in Defra's England total.

The region and England columns add up the 27 councils in the West Midlands and the 269 councils in England that count all incidents.

Footpaths and bridleways accounted for the most incidents in East Staffordshire (559, 38%). 27% of incidents were on highways, against 33% across England. 100 were on private or residential land (6.8%; England 1.1%).

Compared with England, a larger share was on commercial or industrial land (2.4% against 0.3%) and watercourses and banks (1.4% against 0.2%).

The most common kind of waste was other household waste, in 728 incidents (50%; England 44%). Relative to England, East Staffordshire had a larger share of asbestos (1.8% against 0.3%) and other commercial waste (4.7% against 2.9%). Hazardous waste: 26 incidents involved asbestos, 3 incidents involved clinical waste and 10 incidents involved chemical drums, oil and fuel.

45% were a car boot load or less (England 53%). 47% were van loads (England 43%). 128 incidents were the size of a tipper lorry load or larger (8.8%; England 3.7%): 65 tipper lorry loads and 63 significant or multiple loads.

The council took 223 enforcement actions against fly-tipping in 2024/25, 15.3 for every 100 incidents (England 42.1, the West Midlands 40.2). The most common action was investigations (194, 87% of all actions; England 68%). It issued 24 fixed penalty notices (10.8% of its actions; England 8.4%): 10 for fly-tipping itself, 8 to householders who passed waste to an unlicensed carrier (household duty of care) and 6 for littering alongside fly-tipping.

The council told Defra that its fixed penalty for fly-tipping is £400. No prosecutions were recorded. Among the 254 councils ranked on enforcement, East Staffordshire had the 71st lowest rate of actions per 100 incidents and the 71st highest share of fixed penalty notices.

The chart shows fly-tipping incidents per 1,000 residents in East Staffordshire in each year from 2019/20 to 2024/25, with Defra's England total. The rate was below the England total's in every one of those 6 years. It starts in 2019/20, the first year for which Defra records how each council counts incidents.

Of the 27 councils in the West Midlands ranked for 2024/25, Rugby had the highest rate (36.7 per 1,000) and Stafford the lowest (3.2). Rugby's count went from 1,952 in 2023/24 to 4,488 in 2024/25 while England's changed by +9%, a step that may reflect a change in how the council records fly-tipping. Birmingham, Lichfield and Newcastle-under-Lyme are listed but not ranked: ranks cover only councils that count all incidents, with 100 or more in the year.

Source: Defra, fly-tipping statistics for England, local authority table (published 25 February 2026), gov.uk, Open Government Licence v3.0. What is counted, and how councils differ: fly-tipping in England.