Fly-tippers will be punished with bigger fines, Slough’s council leader has warned – saying he doesn't want to be seen as a ‘soft touch.’

Slough Borough Council leader Dexter Smith said the penalties the council doles out to people caught fly-tipping will rise to be in line with those in neighbouring boroughs. He said the changes will come ‘in the next few months.’

Councillor Smith said: “It hasn’t gone unnoticed that Slough is not charging the same penalty that neighbouring boroughs are so we’re raising it to the same level as neighbouring boroughs which is £1,000.

“We don’t want people to think that Slough is a soft touch on fly-tipping.”

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The default fixed penalty charge for fly-tippers in Slough is currently £200, according to council documents published in February.

But the documents say this will rise to £1,000 – an increase of 400 per cent – as part of changes in this year’s annual budget. The government raised the maximum fixed penalty notice that councils can issue from £400 to £1,000 in July last year.

However the council’s plans also say fines will be cut to £500 if they are paid within ten days. The fine for littering has also risen from £150 to £500, or £300 if paid within ten days.

Councillor Smith’s announcement comes after a switch to fortnightly household rubbish collections last year.

He said the council recognised there could be ‘problems’ with overflowing household bins after a switch to fortnightly collections last year. But he said new weekly food waste collections would ‘reduce some of that pressure.’

Food waste collections are set to start on a trial basis on selected streets in Britwell, Chalvey, the Diamond estate, Langley and Wexham. Councillor Smith said collections will then be ‘rolled out across the whole borough in the forthcoming year.’

Councillor Smith’s announcement also comes after data held by the government revealed that only two per cent of fly-tipping cases in Slough result in a prosecution or fine.

A total of 1,258 instances of flytipping were reported from 2022 to 2023, with Slough Borough Council only taking action on 322.

Of these, only 27 Fixed Penalty Notices were given out and no prosecution actions were taken.

A council spokesperson said in January that the council would enforce a fixed penalty notice or prosecution when the council has enough evidence.

Council officers are often tasked with trawling through waste themselves, taking photos of any names and addresses on the waste to try and identify the offenders.

Councillor Smith made the announcement at a meeting of Slough Borough Council’s group of leading councillors – the executive committee – on Monday, April 15.