Details of all fly tips since 2018
Request received 17 December 2025
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request the following information held by your council regarding illegal waste dumping (fly-tipping) sites within your jurisdiction, for the period 1 January 2018 to 31st October(or the most recent date available):
1. The total number of distinct illegal dumping sites recorded by the council during this period.
2. For each site, please provide:
• Geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude), or if unavailable, the full postcode or the most precise location descriptor held (e.g., street name, landmark).
• The date the site was first recorded and, if applicable, the date(s) of subsequent incidents or revisits.
• Any associated case reference numbers or internal identifiers.
• Any notes or information indicating suspected perpetrators (for example, vehicle registration numbers, business names, or other identifiers), and whether any enforcement action was taken.
3. If available, please include any metadata or data fields that help interpret the dataset (for example, source department, data collection method, or categories of dumping).
Responded 19 December 2025
For the time period requested, East Cambridgeshire District Council has over 3,000 fly tip reports. The information requested is not held in an easily accessible format and to provide the specific information requested, an Officer would need to go into each individual report and extract the data. Therefore, this request is refused under Section 12(4)(b) – Manifestly Unreasonable.
The Council considers that the requested information falls within the Environmental Information Regulations (“EIR”), which relate to information on activities affecting or likely to affect the elements and factors of the environment.
This information is exempt from disclosure under Section 12(4)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In respect of those requests that are answered in full, partially or the total refused, please take this as notice under FOIA, that we:
a) Consider the information as exempt from disclosure under the Act.
b) Claim exempt under sections of the Act:
Section 12(4)(b) Manifestly Unreasonable
c) State why the exemption applies:
12(4) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(a), a public authority may refuse to disclose information to the extent that – (b) the request for information is manifestly unreasonable
Section 12 of th Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004:
“12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit”.
The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days of work). In estimating the cost of complying with a request for information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable costs incurred in:
“(a) determining whether it holds the information,
(b) locating the information, or a document which may contain the information,
(c) retrieving the information, or a document which may contain the information, and
(d) extracting the information from a document containing it”.
For the purposes of the estimate the costs of performing these activities should be estimated at a rate of £25 per hour.
Regarding your request for case reference numbers or internal identifiers and any notes or information indicating suspected perpetrators (for example, vehicle registration numbers, business names, or other identifiers, we are not legally allowed to provide information that constitutes personal data and therefore this information would be refused under Section 40(2) – Personal Information.
In respect of those requests that are answered in full, partially or the total refused, please take this as notice under FOIA, that we:
a) Consider the information as exempt from disclosure under the Act;
b) Claim exempt under sections of the Act:
Section 40(2) – Personal Information (ABSOLUTE)
c) State why the exemption applies:
(1) Any information to which a request for information relates is exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject.
(2) Any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt information if—
a) it constitutes personal data which does not fall within subsection (1)
I have spoken to the Environmental Health department and they have stated that within the time limit allowed to us, they could provide data (excluding any personal data) for the past 12 months. Please let me know if you wish to progress with this.