Fly-tippers could have images shared publicly under new Portsmouth council policy

Portsmouth residents could soon help “spill the beans” on fly-tippers as the council looks to share images of suspected offenders.

Fly-tippers in Portsmouth could have their images publicised by the council, which will decide on the new policy next week.

Portsmouth City Council’s Liberal Democrat cabinet will decide next week whether to introduce a new policy to enforce against fly-tipping.

The council notes that the new policy could strengthen its ability to investigate environmental crime which has a “direct and visible” impact on communities, creating “potential health risks” while placing “additional cost and pressure on council services”.

The issue locally

In the 12 months after May 2025, the council issued 326 fixed penalty notices for littering and fly-tipping.

In the 2025 calendar year, some 117 tonnes of fly-tipped waste was removed.

This was a reduction from 2024, when 149 tonnes was collected, and less than half the amount collected ten years earlier in 2015, when 330 tonnes was removed.

There has been a steady downward trend in the amount of waste collected, with a big improvement from 2019, when 272 tonnes was removed, to 2020, when 185 tonnes was collected.

The majority of these offenders are motorists, where number plates and other registration details can help narrow down the search.

However, a “greater number” of images are captured of people fly-tipping on foot, who can be “more difficult to identify”.

The policy

The use of publicity can support investigations by “helping to identify offenders, encouraging witnesses to come forward and providing reassurance to residents that action is being taken”.

It can also “act as a deterrent by reinforcing that environmental crime is taken seriously and will be acted upon”.

The council uses a range of evidence-gathering techniques, such as body-worn video and CCTV.

This evidence could be shared, but the decision to do so must be “consistent, transparent and in line with legal and data protection requirements, making clear that publicity is used to support enforcement activity and is not intended as a tool for naming and shaming”.

The policy states that the evidence will be shared through “approved council communication channels”, which could include social media.

Councillor Lee Hunt, cabinet member for community safety, assumed the images “go up on the council website”.

He said the council is “catching lots” of fly-tipping offenders but “people don’t believe us so we’re going to ramp it up”.

He thinks that Portsmouth residents will “spill the beans because people are utterly fed up with prams and mattresses and goodness knows what else being dumped on the street”.

He said that while there are “nice streets” in Portsmouth, the city has vulnerable fly-tipping hotspots including “Highland Road Cemetery”.

Fratton, North End, Buckland, Milton and Southsea have also been popular spots for fly-tippers.

He said that while all sources of littering and fly-tipping are important to address: “We want to catch these people who are heaving large amounts of fly-tipping onto streets, back alleyways, on corners.”