Bristol residents caught fly-tipping now face a £400 fine - and there is no longer an early payment discount option.
It is one of the tougher penalties Bristol City Council has introduced in its bid to crack down on environmental crimes and reduce the amount of graffiti and waste across the city.
The harsher penalty regime began this week and includes hefty increases to the fines for fly tipping, fly posting, graffiti and leafleting and the removal of a number of discounts for early payment.
The fixed penalty for fly-tipping has doubled and the fines for drawing graffiti, fly posting and unauthorised leafleting climb by 50 per cent.
The new fines of £400 for fly-tipping and £150 for graffiti, fly posting and handing out leaflets without permission are the maximum allowable under legislation introduced in April last year.
Anyone caught drawing graffiti, fly posting or leafleting will no longer be able to get a discount if they pay their fine early.
The council has also taken advantage of new legislation introduced in January this year to impose a new fine to tackle fly-tipping by unregistered carriers of household waste.
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The new “domestic duty of care” penalty means any householder who fails to ensure their rubbish is disposed of by an authorised waste carrier can be fined £200. This will be reviewed in 12 to 18 months' time.
Fly-tipping is a major issue in parts of Bristol - recent data revealed there were 8,206 incidents of fly-tipping recorded in the city in 2017/18 - the equivalent of nearly one every hour.
However the authority didn’t prosecute a single person over the course of the year.
In comparison. South Gloucestershire Council recorded 1,617 incidents of fly-tipping over the same period with eight people being taken to court.
Bristol City Council has also made changes to penalties for businesses which commit environmental offences.
It has removed the prompt payment discount on an existing £300 fine for waste carriers who fail to produce a waste carrier licence or waste transfer notes.
And it has increased the fine for businesses which fail to store their commercial waste bins properly from £100 to £110 - the maximum allowable under legislation.
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The fines for littering, dog fouling and dogs off lead are already as high as permitted by legislation and so remain unchanged.
The council says it will use the money collected in fines to fund “environmental improvements” as part of its clean streets strategy.
Cllr Steve Pearce, cabinet member with responsibility for waste, said: “We appreciate that these are issues that people feel very strongly about and as part of the Clean Streets Campaign we are working very hard to reduce the amount of graffiti and waste across the city.
"Although areas of the city have already become significantly cleaner, much more work needs to be done, particularly in relation to behaviour change, and removing the early payment rate and increasing the penalty for certain offences sends a clear message.
“We believe these tougher fines will send a clear message and act as a deterrent, and help us to further protect Bristol from people who continue to break the rules.”
The Clean Streets Campaign was launched by Bristol mayor Marvin Rees in November 2016, with the aim of making the city measurably cleaner by 2020.
