Barnet Council issued £42,500 of fly-tipping fines from April to October using CCTV, with £13,000 paid so far. Each fine is £500, or £600 for a second offence.

Barnet Council has issued £42,500 of fines to fly-tippers it caught on CCTV between the start of April and October 2026, and more than £13,000 of that has already been paid.

The money comes from a six-month pilot in which officers from the council’s Community Safety Team spend dedicated time in the borough’s CCTV control room, picking out residents and businesses dumping bulky waste on streets and green spaces. The officers then follow each one up with a fixed penalty notice: £500 for a first offence, rising to £600 for a second. At £500 a time, £42,500 is the equivalent of 85 first-offence fines, although the council has not said how many notices it issued or how many were for repeat offences.

More cameras on the hotspots

The council says the team was helped this year by 27 new “redeployable” cameras, which can be moved from place to place, several of them now pointed at fly-tipping hotspots. They sit on top of the 900 fixed camera views already in place across the borough.

Officers also make daily joint visits with the council’s Street Scene service to the areas hit most often, so that dumps are cleared quickly and investigated. Evidence found in the rubbish is used alongside the camera footage to trace whoever left it. The council says CCTV has also picked up other breaches of its Public Space Protection Order, and that it is tracking those people down “wherever possible”.

The pilot will carry on for the rest of the financial year, to the end of March 2027, and more redeployable cameras are due to go up before the end of 2026.

“Don’t be lazy”

The council has published a video of recent fly-tippers it caught on camera and fined.

CCTV clips of people dumping waste in Barnet who were later fined. Video: supplied by Barnet Council

Cllr Sara Conway, the cabinet member for community safety, said dumping next to commercial bins was no excuse:

“The latest figures show that our new and improved CCTV network is having a real impact against the scourge of fly tipping. Some of the recent perpetrators ‘caught on camera’ can be seen dumping a range of bulky household items next to commercial bins. While some may consider this to be better than fly tipping in green spaces, it is still fly tipping. There are a range of ways that residents can legally get rid of their bulky waste: don’t be lazy and run the risk of being fined.”

Cllr Alan Schneiderman, the cabinet member for environment, said: “Fly tipping is one of the topics that is consistently at the top of councillors’ inboxes and now is the time to dump the dumpers and take action to stop fly tipping in Barnet. Alongside CCTV and proactive patrols, it is also really important that, if you see anyone fly tipping or have any information about this in your area, you report it through our web portal.”

The scale of the problem

The fines are a small dent in a large number. Council figures published last week showed 4,091 fly-tipping incidents recorded between April and July 2026, 22% more than in the same months of 2025, with Cricklewood, Edgware, Burnt Oak and Hendon the worst-hit wards. We set those numbers out ward by ward in Barnet fly-tipping rises 22%, and Cricklewood is worst hit.

How to report it, and how to get rid of bulky waste

The council’s Caring for our places page explains how to report a fly-tip through its web portal and the legal ways to dispose of bulky items. Anyone who sees someone dumping waste, or knows who is responsible for a pile, can report it there.

Source: Barnet Council news release, 10 November 2026.