Only one fine for fly-tipping was issued by South Cambridgeshire District Council in a year that saw over 500 incidents reported.

The district council has been named on a government league table of authorities with some of the lowest numbers of actions taken over fly-tipping incidents.

Data released by the government showed that in 2021/22 the district council reported 561 fly-tipping incidents in the area, but only issued one Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) fine.

People can be fined up to £1,000 if they are caught fly-tipping after the government increased the maximum fine allowed earlier this year.

The district council said it investigates every case of fly-tipping, but said the rural nature of the area made it hard to find evidence of who dumped the waste.

However, the authority said it was "determined to do more" and was looking at increasing its enforcement resources.

The government included the district council on a league table of the 30 local authorities reporting the fewest FPNs issued in 2021/22 – which excluded eight authorities that did not report any enforcement actions that year.

The district council came equal to 249 in the country for the number of fines it issued. The government said it published the league table to "increase transparency" and to show the authorities they say were "taking a muscular approach" to tackling the issue.

Last week the district council highlighted its campaign to try and prevent fly tipping by asking people to make sure they were using a licensed professional to take away their rubbish, and not an unlicensed 'man with a van'.

The leader of the district council, Councillor Bridget Smith, said at the time that 75 per cent of the fly-tipping incidents in the area were done by people paid to take away rubbish.

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The district council highlighted that if evidence linking the rubbish back to its owner were found, then they could face a fine.

The authority also took the lowest number of actions for fly tipping compared to the other councils in Cambridgeshire.

Huntingdonshire District Council took the second lowest number of actions over fly-tipping in the county, with 23 total actions, after reporting 1,247 incidents.

Peterborough City Council reported the highest number of fly-tipping incidents, with 8,981. They also took the highest number of actions - 5,779 in total.

Councillor Henry Batchelor, the lead cabinet member for environment services and licensing at South Cambridgeshire District Council, said: "We investigate every case of fly-tipping to look for evidence and are incredibly effective at quickly getting it cleared off public land.

"Sadly, in a rural district, we are prone to van loads of waste being dumped in quiet and isolated roads, tracks and byways, where it is very difficult to get the evidence you need to take action.

"We welcome the increased penalties that can be issued and we are determined to do more. That is why we have already been looking at increasing our enforcement resource, which we aim to do shortly."