• Government figures show 32 per cent decrease in fly tips
• Borough is second in the league table for reducing fly tips
• 95 per cent of fly tips are cleared within 24 hours.
Figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) show there were 17,497 fly-tipping incidents in Newham in the year to March 2023 – a decrease of 32% from 25,879 in 2021-22. That means Newham has recorded the second biggest drop in fly tip incidents in London, just one point behind Hammersmith and Fulham.
Councillor James Asser, Cabinet Member for Environment and Sustainable Transport, said: “These figures represent a real victory for our residents who want to see our streets cleaner, safer and more pleasant and are supporting work to make Newham a cleaner borough.
“We are not relaxing our work based on these figures but using them as the start of pushing further, we will continue to invest in services to make our streets cleaner, safer and more pleasant.”
The largest proportion of discarded waste in Newham was household waste, making up 69% of all incidents, with 80 per cent dumped on the street.
Cllr Asser added: “We have recently launched weekly recycling collections, in place of the previous fortnightly collections, and this makes it much easier for residents to keep on top of their domestic rubbish, as well as supporting a more environmentally friendly way of disposing of it.
“We are working hard across all the Council and with the community to radically improve the cleanliness of Newham’s streets. We’ve listened to the issues our residents face – and we recognise what needs to be done.”
Our upcoming ‘Let’s Love Newham’ campaign, which launches later this year, aims to keep this momentum going by emphasising how residents can dispose of waste and recycling correctly, report fly-tipping incidents and join forces with their local community to take part in clean up events.
In August 2021 street cleansing services were bought back in-house under the Council’s direct control and work began work of re-designing street cleansing services across the borough. The changes introduced have not only had a positive impact on the Council’s response to fly-tipping, they have also resulted in a cleaner borough.
To measure the overall cleanliness of Newham, the street cleansing service is independently assessed four times a year, and scored against areas including litter and detritus, being scored. These scores have seen continued improvement since 2022. Currently 95 per cent of fly tips are cleared within 24 hours.
Newham’s success is attributable to its continued campaign work focused on educating and inspiring residential behaviour change.
The Council successfully worked with Keep Britain Tidy researchers to introduce schemes which highlight the impact of fly-tipping on the way residents feel about the place they live, while taking into account the impact on Council budgets.