SWINDON continues to lag behind Wiltshire Council's lead in taking action against fly-tippers, a union has revealed.

There were more than 3,000 incidents of fly-tipping in Wiltshire’s local authority region in 2016 to 2017, figures from GMB Southern have shown.

But the union said there was “a huge variation” in the efforts made by councils to find the perpetrators and punish them – with Swindon Borough Council reporting that no action was taken against fly-tippers in the same period.

Wiltshire was the most active local authority in the region for taking action, with an average of 1.05 actions taken for every incident reported.

The figures show that in the year up to March 2017, 67 local authorities in Dorset and Wiltshire cleared 10,306 incidents of fly-tipping, but during the same period only 3,858 actions were taken to investigate fly-tippers.

The union is calling for all councils to be more active to investigate and punish the anti-social behaviour of fly-tippers and said “nothing less than a policy of zero tolerance should be acceptable”.

Local authorities have extensive powers to take action against fly-tipping, including sending warning letters, fixed penalty notices, stop-and-searches, seizing vehicles, issuing a caution or even prosecution.

In recent weeks, Swindon Borough Council has come under fire from furious residents regarding a growing pile of waste in Wichelstowe.

From discarded fridges, insulation foam, bricks, doors and even a dead deer carcass has been strewn across Scott Way and despite the council saying that the fly-tipper had been identified, fined and ordered to remove the waste, it still remains there this week.

June Griffiths-James, 54, from Rodbourne Cheney walks her dog in the area on occasion but on her last two visits, she has seen the amount of waste double.

“You can tell it is not just domestic waste but it is shop waste as well,” she said.

“There’s fridges dumped there and a couple of cans of cooking oil that would you get in restaurants.

“You never see any animals around there but on Monday there was a fox who was trying to find some of the food waste that has been dumped.

“Even if someone has been fined for dumping waste, it clearly hasn’t worked to get them to remove the waste.

“Because it is out of the way that’s why people are dumping it there.”

The council say that there is also a negative perception of fly tipping in the area as a contractor working on the Wichelstowe site has been given permission to store large quantities of soil at the site.

Paul Maloney, GMB Southern regional secretary, said: “Fly-tipping is deeply antisocial behaviour and can never be tolerated.

“Councils need to learn from each other and, as well as having investigation and enforcement teams, they need to mobilise the full-hearted support of the local community for the policy of zero tolerance.”

A Swindon Borough Council spokesman said: “We are working hard to clamp down on fly tipping in the borough. The Council only adopted the powers for issuing on-the-spot fines in April this year and are have now started using this power against individuals.

“The Council takes fly-tipping extremely seriously and we regularly investigate reports of fly-tipping, searching for evidence in order to identify and prosecute the perpetrators. Last year our Envirocrime team recovered £34,000 and we expect to recover an even greater amount this financial year.

“However, we do not have the resources to have countless staff walking the streets in the hope of catching people fly tipping waste, especially as these types of offences tend to take place at night and out of public view.

“The public can play a crucial role in acting as our eyes and ears and if anyone has any information about fly-tipping incidents they can contact us on 01793 445501.

“Our Envirocrime team has already identified one culprit who dumped in Wichelstowe and he was interviewed under caution, fined £400 and has now removed the waste so there is no cost to the Council. We are currently pursuing a number of other lines of inquiry which will hopefully uncover the other individuals who have been using Wichelstowe as their own personal dumping ground. When we catch these people they too will be fined and ordered to remove the waste at their own cost.”