A Port Talbot woman has been left with a bill of more than £1,600, not for dumping rubbish, but for failing to answer the council officers investigating it.
Danielle Rigdon, of Lake Road, Sandfields, was found guilty at Swansea Magistrates’ Court on 29 October of failing to comply with a legal notice requiring her to attend an interview.
She was fined £660 and ordered to pay £713.50 in costs and a £264 victim surcharge, £1,637.50 in all.
Five black bags on the Goytre to Bryn road
The case began on 10 June, when enforcement officers from Neath Port Talbot Council were called to the Goytre to Bryn road near Cwm Wernderi Reservoir.
Five black bags had been left there, holding household waste, children’s toys and clothing, the council says.
Evidence led officers to Rigdon, according to the authority. The offence she was convicted of was failing to comply with the notice, not dumping the waste.
Officers tried phoning her, writing to her and calling at her home, and invited her to formal interviews. None of it worked, the council says.
The notice that turns silence into an offence
She was then served with a notice under section 108 of the Environment Act 1995, the law that lets council investigators require answers.
It required her to attend Neath Civic Centre at a set date and time, or contact the officer to arrange another. She did neither, the council says, and did not respond to further attempts to reach her.
Cllr Carl Jordan, the council’s cabinet member for Streetscene, said: “Our officers made several attempts to contact Ms Rigdon, offering her opportunities to engage with the investigation. These chances were ignored.”
He added: “Environmental notices are an important part of our efforts to investigate fly-tipping and other waste offences. Failing to comply with a lawful notice is a serious matter and, as this case shows, can result in prosecution.”
A £660 fine, against a £400 ceiling for dumping
Her £660 fine is more than the £400 maximum a Welsh council can issue on the spot for fly-tipping itself. The Welsh Government has consulted on raising that ceiling to £5,000.
It is the latest in a run of waste prosecutions by the council this autumn, including a collector fined after 14 bags from a Cwmavon house clearance were dumped under the M4.
Neath Port Talbot recorded 884 fly-tipping incidents in 2024/25, up 40% on the year before, Welsh Government figures show.
Fly-tipping can be reported, and recycling centre slots booked, through a myNPT account or the council’s website.
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