Overview
- Solihull councillors endorsed developing and adopting a formal plan to tackle illegal waste at a November 11 scrutiny meeting.
- The proposed approach would standardize reporting and logging of incidents and deploy both visible and covert cameras to catch offenders.
- Despite 3,024 reported incidents in 2024–25—down 752 year on year—only 140 cases were reviewed, yielding three prosecutions and seven fixed penalty notices, including a successful court case tied to a Fen End Road layby.
- Investigations are constrained by a single officer and by witnesses’ reluctance to provide statements due to fear of repercussions.
- Officials reported some fly-tips traced to Birmingham during an ongoing bin strike, as Birmingham Council cites expanded CCTV, hundreds of weekly clearances and 15 vehicle seizures in six months.