Cheltenham Borough Council urges local residents to fight fly-tipping

Cheltenham Borough Council is teaming up with Keep Britain Tidy for ‘Fight Fly-Tipping Fortnight’, a campaign warning residents about criminal waste traders who use convincing, professional-looking online ads to pose as legitimate businesses - only to illegally dump the rubbish they are paid to take away.

Fly-tipping costs councils across England many millions of pounds every year in clean-up costs, draining money that could otherwise be spent on essential local services.

The campaign calls on people in Cheltenham to protect themselves and their communities from falling for a #RubbishDeal - low-cost, unlicensed services offered using appealing ads on social media by organised waste criminals. Rogue waste traders hide in plain sight behind professional-looking adverts, ‘five-star’ reviews and tempting prices, making it difficult to tell them apart from legitimate operators. What they don’t tell you is where your rubbish could end up.

Fight Fly-tipping Fortnight is helping residents know what to look out for and make simple checks before handing over their rubbish to avoid it being illegally dumped on streets, fields and public spaces.

Cheltenham Borough Council is supporting Fight Fly-tipping Fortnight with a local campaign aimed at driving up awareness and is calling on households to take three simple steps to avoid a #RubbishDeal:

Ask for a waste carrier licence.

Check the number on the Environment Agency’s public register at https://environment.data.gov.uk/public-register/view/search-waste-carriers-brokers or call 0300 065 3000.
Check you’ll get a proper receipt.

To help curb fly-tipping Cheltenham Borough Council has improved its surveillance equipment including the addition of new mobile automatic number plate recognition cameras (ANPR) which will be used to identify offenders.

Cllr Jamie Jamieson, cabinet member for safety and communities, said: “Fly-tipping takes a real toll on communities. It blights our urban neighbourhoods as well as country lanes. We want Cheltenham’s residents to be more aware of the rogue traders who claim to take your rubbish away, only to then just fly-tip it. And we also want to remind people that we can all use our recycling banks.

“We have 10 banks dotted around the town and these are for glass, paper, cans, textiles and shoes, cardboard and mixed plastics.

“A word of caution, though: some of the items people bring to the recycling banks are not appropriate, and they end up leaving them there.

“Examples of this are chairs, pushchairs, sofas and mattresses which are just abandoned at the side of banks. To be absolutely clear, this is fly-tipping and it’s illegal. Dropping off items by the side of the banks without trying to deposit them properly is also fly-tipping.”

Cllr Jamieson added: “We want to work with communities to raise awareness and understanding, but where people are clearly breaking the law, make no mistake, we will use enforcement.”

Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, chief executive officer at Keep Britain Tidy, said: “Local authorities see first-hand the damage fly-tipping causes, working every day to clear illegally dumped waste and protect the places their communities value. Tackling the problem places huge demands on already stretched council teams, which is why we’re so pleased to have Cheltenham Borough Council supporting Fight Fly-tipping Fortnight this year.”

“People hiring someone to take away their rubbish should be able to trust that it will be disposed of responsibly. But rogue waste traders are exploiting that trust, taking people’s money and then leaving their waste dumped in streets, fields and public spaces for communities and councils to deal with.”

Fight Fly-tipping Fortnight will run from 12^th – 25^th October 2026, with local authorities across the country joining forces with Keep Britain Tidy to highlight the scale and impact of fly-tipping and educate residents on how to protect themselves and their communities.

Cheltenham Borough Council offers a bulky waste collection service, promotes its recycling banks and offers advice on how to report fly-tipping.

Ends

For media enquiries contact: communications telephone 01242 264154, email communications@cheltenham.gov.uk

Notes to editors

About Keep Britain Tidy

Keep Britain Tidy is a leading environmental charity. We set the standard for the management of parks and beaches, inspire people to be litter-free, to waste less and live more sustainably. We run campaigns and programmes including the Great British Spring Clean, Love Parks Week, Buy Nothing New Month, Eco-Schools, the Green Flag Award for parks and green spaces and the Blue Flag/ Seaside Awards for beaches. To find out more about Keep Britain Tidy, our campaigns and programmes visit www.keepbritaintidy.org.

Cheltenham Borough Council urges local residents to fight fly-tipping

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