Ashfield Council considering covert surveillance to catch biggest fly-tippers

Covert surveillance – which includes monitoring and observing people without their knowledge – is tightly regulated, and can only be used to tackle serious crimes.

But council leader Coun Jason Zadrozny (Ash Ind) told a cabinet meeting on January 29 these methods are now being considered to stamp out commercial fly-tipping, where businesses are illegally dumping their waste.

Councils are required to get a court order under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) for any covert surveillance.

Coun Zadrozny said: “There will be a summit between our legal and environmental departments to look at the grey area between commercial and personal fly-tipping, and see whether there is an opportunity to use covert means.

“Currently, most small-scale cases are tackled using overt surveillance than covert.

"We have around 30 new CCTV cameras across the district.”

According to a report, the council has not authorised any direct surveillance under RIPA in the past three years.

Councils are required to justify why this type of action is necessary and that the length was proportionate to the information being sought.

Covert surveillance is considered anything where the target is unaware of it – unlike typical street CCTV cameras – and may include hidden surveillance equipment or recording devices.

Coun Helen-Ann Smith (Ash Ind), portfolio holder for parks and environmental sciences, said currently the council has to rely on the police for these powers.

She added: “The majority of fly-tippers seems to be coming from outside district, across the border from Derbyshire.

“It looks as though we have deterred local people – now we have to focus on people coming into Ashfield from elsewhere.”

Antonia Taylor, community safety manager, said: “As a council, we’ve put a lot of preventative measures in place to stop fly-tipping.

“There has been a lot of action around Meden Bank in Sutton, which was previously a hotspot.

“Where necessary, we’ve carried out enforcement like issuing Fixed Penalty Notices.

“Of our 15 most comparable regions, we have the second-lowest rate of fly-tipping.”

Last year, a Chesterfield resident was prosecuted and received a £780 fine for waste dumped in Teversal.

People can also be issued with Community Protection Notices, requiring them to clean waste off their properties.