NOT one person has been prosecuted for more than 1,900 incidents of flytipping, new figures have revealed.

Data obtained via Freedom of Information requests found flytipping hit a record 1.1 million cases in 2020/2021, but fines and prosecutions fell by half.

In the Tendring district, there were 1,991 incidents of flytipping reported, but no-one was prosecuted for any of them.

Tendring Council was listed in the top five for unprosecuted incidents leading to the highest clean up cost, which totalled £78,000.

The pandemic has seen offences rise as council tips have been closed.

Carlo Guglielmi, Tendring councillor responsible for corporate enforcement, said the authority is putting a lot of work into clamping down on fly-tipping and other issues.

He added: “Fly-tipping is not acceptable and will not be tolerated within Tendring.

“One primary reason for not fining people is that we engage, explain and encourage to try to resolve the issue before we enforce.

“Fines or prosecutions are a last resort, and I would not want to see this number be high.”

According to figures released by the Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs, the number of fixed penalty notices issued nationally last year fell by a quarter to 57,600, while the number of court fines fell by a half to 1,313.

The total value of fines fell two-thirds to £440,000 – equivalent to 39p per fly-tip.