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

Among the 267 councils in England that count all incidents, North East Lincolnshire had the 121st highest rate of fly-tipping per resident in 2024/25. Of the 14 ranked councils in Yorkshire and The Humber, it had the 7th lowest rate. The count was down 6% on 2023/24 (2,268), against a rise of 9% in Defra's England total.

The region and England columns add up the 14 councils in Yorkshire and The Humber and the 269 councils in England that count all incidents.

Footpaths and bridleways accounted for the most incidents in North East Lincolnshire (2,038, 96%). 2% of incidents were on highways, against 33% across England.

The most common kind of waste was other household waste, in 1,112 incidents (52%; England 44%). Relative to England, North East Lincolnshire had a larger share of animal carcasses (8.2% against 0.3%), clinical waste (1.4% against 0.1%) and asbestos (1.4% against 0.3%). Hazardous waste: 29 incidents involved asbestos, 29 incidents involved clinical waste and 7 incidents involved chemical drums, oil and fuel.

85% were a car boot load or less (England 53%). 15% were van loads (England 43%). 4 incidents were the size of a tipper lorry load or larger (0.2%; England 3.7%): 3 tipper lorry loads and 1 significant or multiple load.

The council took 621 enforcement actions against fly-tipping in 2024/25, 29.2 for every 100 incidents (England 42.1, Yorkshire and The Humber 40.5). The most common action was investigations (525, 85% of all actions; England 68%). It issued 2 fixed penalty notices (0.3% of its actions; England 8.4%): 1 for fly-tipping itself and 1 to householders who passed waste to an unlicensed carrier (household duty of care).

1 fixed penalty notice was recorded as paid in the year. No prosecutions were recorded. Among the 254 councils ranked on enforcement, North East Lincolnshire had the 107th lowest rate of actions per 100 incidents and the 27th lowest share of fixed penalty notices.

The chart shows fly-tipping incidents per 1,000 residents in North East Lincolnshire 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 14 councils in Yorkshire and The Humber ranked for 2024/25, Kingston upon Hull had the highest rate (49.6 per 1,000) and East Riding of Yorkshire the lowest (3.0). Kingston upon Hull's count went from 6,147 in 2023/24 to 13,663 in 2024/25 while England's changed by +9%, a step that may reflect a change in how the council records fly-tipping. Leeds is 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.