Fly-tipping in Newcastle-under-Lyme council area: incidents, enforcement and fines

Newcastle-under-Lyme is not ranked against other councils because it counts only fly-tips reported by the public, not all incidents. The count was down 5% on 2023/24 (880).

Council land accounted for the most incidents in Newcastle-under-Lyme (215, 26%). 25% of incidents were on highways, against 33% across England. 28 were on private or residential land (3.3%; England 1.1%).

Compared with England, a larger share was on back alleyways (18.7% against 9.0%). The council did not identify the land type for 16% of incidents.

The most common kind of waste was other household waste, in 219 incidents (26%; England 44%). Relative to England, Newcastle-under-Lyme had a larger share of green waste (4.9% against 2.9%) and construction, demolition and excavation waste (8.7% against 5.5%). Hazardous waste: 13 incidents involved asbestos, 3 incidents involved clinical waste and 4 incidents involved chemical drums, oil and fuel. The waste type was not identified for 26% of incidents.

45% were a car boot load or less (England 53%). 46% were van loads (England 43%). 75 incidents were the size of a tipper lorry load or larger (8.9%; England 3.7%): 44 tipper lorry loads and 31 significant or multiple loads.

The council took 315 enforcement actions against fly-tipping in 2024/25. The most common action was investigations (294, 93% of all actions; England 68%). It issued 6 fixed penalty notices (1.9% of its actions; England 8.4%): 2 for fly-tipping itself and 4 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 £300. No prosecutions were recorded.

The chart shows fly-tipping incidents per 1,000 residents in Newcastle-under-Lyme in each year from 2021/22 to 2024/25. In every year shown the council counted only fly-tips reported by the public, so the years compare with each other but not with England. The series starts in 2021/22 because the council changed how it counts fly-tipping between 2020/21 and 2021/22, from counting all incidents to counting only fly-tips reported by the public.

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.