FIVE people have been issued with £400 on-the-spot fines for fly-tipping, but Bolton Council has come under fire for not making use of the new penalties sooner.

Since bringing in the new fixed penalty notices in June, the town hall has collected £2,000 from fly-tippers caught in the act.

However, new figures show that Bolton is one of many local authorities across England which did not make full use of the new powers when they were first introduced by the Government in May, 2016.

Manchester City Council collected £13,300 from the fines in the first year of the nationwide crackdown on illegal waste dumping, compared to Bolton’s £400.

Bolton Council says its focus to to ‘change behaviour and educate residents’ before resorting to fines.

A council spokesman said: “The £400 fine for fly-tipping is one of a number of deterrents which the council uses to deal with fly-tippers and those who dump waste.

“In June 2017, we introduced the fixed penalty fine for fly-tipping and have fined five people to date, a total of £2,000.

“Over the same period, we have also fined 113 people for dumping back street waste, a total of £5,520.

“The council’s approach is to change behaviour and educate residents as an initial step and follow this with enforcement if necessary.

“Where there is clear evidence of individuals or businesses fly-tipping or dumping waste, the council will always seek to fine or prosecute those responsible.

“We hope that a £400 fine will act as a significant deterrent to those who try to flout the law.”

London boroughs made up most of the top 10 local authorities who had issued the most fixed penalties. Westminster topped the responses, having handed out 787 fines and collected around £130,000 according to council estimates.

Bolton Tory leader, Cllr David Greenhalgh, said: “The Conservative Group has been calling for stronger enforcement on litter and fly-tipping with larger on-the-spot fines for as long as I can remember.

“To now find out that the Labour Council has not been taking full advantage of new powers given to them by Government to increase on-the-spot fines is scandalous, not only by failing to send a message to fly-tippers that your actions will be severely punished, but also by providing welcome revenue from fines that can be recirculated back into the service to make Bolton cleaner and litter-free.”

Local Government Association environment spokesman Martin Tett said it was wrong that councils had to spend ‘vast amounts’ tackling the problem at a time when they continued to face significant funding pressures.

The move by the Government to allow councils to apply fixed penalty notices for small scale fly-tipping had been a ‘big step in the right direction’ to help crack down on fly-tippers, he added.

But he said councils may still feel prosecutions were the most effective course of action.

He said: “When they take offenders to court, councils need a faster and more effective legal system which means fly-tippers are given hard-hitting fines for more serious offences. Local authorities should also be able to recoup all prosecution costs, rather than be left out of pocket.”