East Devon District Council has rejected claims that it took no action at all against fly-tippers last year.

A league table of local authorities, published on the website of the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), lists East Devon among the worst-performing councils. According to Defra, the council didn’t report issuing any fixed penalty notices against fly-tippers during 2021/22, even though there were 466 recorded incidents in the district.

Highlighting the figures, the MP for East Devon, Simon Jupp, said: “Fly-tippers and litter louts blighting our countryside are being let off the hook by the political leadership at East Devon District Council who are asleep at the wheel.”

He said the Government had increased the maximum on-the-spot fines for litter, graffiti, and fly-tipping to help strengthen the arm of councils to clamp down on these crimes – but East Devon District Council is ‘neglecting its basic responsibilities to council taxpayers’.

But East Devon District Council says Defra’s figures are wrong.

A spokesperson for the council told the Herald: “We were surprised to see the reported figures, as we take fly-tipping seriously, so we reviewed our database, and it does seem that there has been a mistake.

“Our figures show that in the year 2021/2022, of 10 fly-tipping cases that warranted further investigation, 5 Fixed Penalty Notices were issued, 1 case was passed to the Environment Agency and 1 was cleared up by the perpetrator.  In the other 3 cases there was insufficient evidence to proceed.”

“Our Streetscene and Environmental Health teams work in partnership on fly-tipping cases. Streetscene deal with the disposal of fly-tips on council land and check for evidence of who may have dumped the waste.  If they find any, they pass this to Environmental Health to carry out an investigation and to take appropriate enforcement action.

“We investigate all cases where there is evidence of a perpetrator and would encourage East Devon residents to report any fly-tipping to us on our website: https://eastdevon.gov.uk/environmental-maintenance/report-fly-tipping/ or through the East Devon app.

“Any evidence they can provide such as video footage, a description of the perpetrator, and vehicle registration numbers, helps us to progress these cases.”

Cllr Paul Arnott, leader of the council, said: "We are glad that our officers looked into these inaccurate claims from Mr Jupp and his campaign team and have set him straight.

"With Mr Jupp having abandoned his East Devon constituency on the chicken run to Honiton, I do understand why he and his team are now desperately trying to tarnish the district council. I must say, though, that it is disappointing conduct from a serving MP.”

In response Simon Jupp said; “I’m not sure 'actually we investigated 10 incidents' is something for the Liberal Democrat leader of our council to shout about when 466 fly-tipping incidents were recorded across our district. It also suggests his council don’t log data correctly, which is a major concern. Rather than desperately spin excuses, the Lib Dem leader should focus on sorting out the mess his party are making of our local council.”