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

Among the 267 councils in England that count all incidents, Stroud had the 107th lowest rate of fly-tipping per resident in 2024/25. Of the 24 ranked councils in the South West, it had the 12th highest rate. The count was up 8% on 2023/24 (1,144), against a rise of 9% in Defra's England total.

The region and England columns add up the 25 councils in the South West and the 269 councils in England that count all incidents.

Highways accounted for the most incidents in Stroud: 863, or 70% (England 33%). 28 were on private or residential land (2.3%; England 1.1%).

The most common kind of waste was other household waste, in 533 incidents (43%; England 44%). Relative to England, Stroud had a larger share of other commercial waste (7.5% against 2.9%), tyres (2.8% against 1.1%) and vehicle parts (2.0% against 0.9%). Hazardous waste: 12 incidents involved asbestos, 11 incidents involved clinical waste and 6 incidents involved chemical drums, oil and fuel. The waste type was not identified for 11% of incidents.

47% were a car boot load or less (England 53%). 43% were van loads (England 43%). 121 incidents were the size of a tipper lorry load or larger (9.8%; England 3.7%): 56 tipper lorry loads and 65 significant or multiple loads.

The council took 239 enforcement actions against fly-tipping in 2024/25, 19.4 for every 100 incidents (England 42.1, the South West 22.9). The most common action was investigations (219, 92% of all actions; England 68%). It issued 1 fixed penalty notice (0.4% of its actions; England 8.4%): 1 for fly-tipping itself.

1 fixed penalty notice was recorded as paid in the year. No prosecutions were recorded. Among the 254 councils ranked on enforcement, Stroud had the 85th lowest rate of actions per 100 incidents and the 33rd lowest share of fixed penalty notices.

The chart shows fly-tipping incidents per 1,000 residents in Stroud 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 24 councils in the South West ranked for 2024/25, Bristol had the highest rate (20.8 per 1,000) and East Devon the lowest (2.5). Exeter, Isles of Scilly and Wiltshire 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.