Wiltshire Council has won the Environmental Campaign of the Year Award at the Keep Britain Tidy Awards for its work to reduce fly-tipping in the county.
The council’s hard-hitting We’re Targeting Fly-tippers (WTF) campaign won the prestigious national award at a ceremony in York last week (Thursday, 29th February).
Wiltshire Council was shortlisted for the award along with the City of Doncaster Council and SWISCo Ltd – a Torbay Council Company.
The campaign was launched in late 2022 following the council’s extra investment of £150,000 each year for three years to tackling fly-tipping and environmental crime in the county. The funding has seen the council employ more officers and invest in more equipment such as covert cameras to both prevent and catch fly-tippers.
Cllr Caroline Thomas, Cabinet Member for Transport and Street Scene, said: “This is a fantastic result for Wiltshire and shows just how hard our teams are working to tackle fly-tipping in the county. I’d like to congratulate our officers for all their hard work in winning this prestigious national award.
“Our We’re Targeting Fly-tippers (WTF) campaign is both hard-hitting and eye-catching – and it has generated significant local and national media coverage. But most importantly it is getting results.
“The number of fly-tips in Wiltshire has been on a downward trend since we launched the campaign. There were 7.4 fly-tipping incidents per 100,000 residents in 2020/21, and that has fallen to 5.1 incidents per 100,000 residents in 2022/23.
“We’ve also seen a huge increase in the number of fixed penalty notices (FPNs) and prosecutions for fly-tipping, with 25 FPNs issued and 11 successful prosecutions from April-September in 2023, compared to 5 FPNs and 2 prosecutions in the same period in 2022.
“But this is just the start – over the coming year, people will see more prosecutions for fly-tipping and a new phase of our WTF campaign, as we fulfil our Business Plan pledge to reduce fly-tipping in Wiltshire.
“Our message is clear – We’re Targeting Fly-tippers here in Wiltshire.”
To find out more about the WTF campaign and how to report fly-tipping in Wiltshire, people should go to: www.wiltshire.gov.uk/fly-tipping
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