HEREFORDSHIRE Council has defended its annual prosecutions and fines for fly-tipping after a Freedom of Information (FOI) request revealed figures had hit a six-year low.

Since 2020, the authority had completed an average of 6.7 prosecutions and 5.2 fines a year, but numbers for 2025 showed just two prosecutions and one fine.

This came despite the council stating it had received about a thousand reports of fly-tipping on public and private land over a 12-month period.

Cabinet member for roads and regulatory services Barry Durkin said the FOI figures did "not reflect the full picture".

He said other cases were prosecuted under duty of care and waste legislation, "where this offers the strongest route to conviction", taking prosecutions to 13 across 2025.

The councillor added that the council's approach to enforcement combined "education, accessible waste services, fixed penalty notices and prosecution for serious or persistent offenders".

He said the authority was "grateful" to the public for reporting incidents and t remained "committed to protecting" the county from environmental crime.

The last local fly-tipping case to come to court was nearly two years ago, when a Basildon lorry driver was ordered to pay £3,254 for dumping 30 pallets at the roadside of the A40 near Ross-on-Wye the previous year.