AN AM has warned that residents could be fly-tipping without realising it.

Local Assembly Member Joyce Watson said giving away waste to unauthorised people to dispose of, even "in good faith", and then the waste is fly-tipped, the resident could face a fixed penalty notice of £300, or £150 if paid early.

New rules were agreed yesterday by Assembly Members to help councils take further action against fly-tipping, discouraging householders from handing their waste to people not authorised to handle it.

Joyce Watson AM said: “I want residents to be fully aware of these changes. Fly-tipping is a scourge on our communities in Pembrokeshire.

“We all need to take more responsibility for how our waste is disposed of, and this means asking questions of those that offer to take it away.”

Councils saw more than 35,000 incidents of fly-tipping in 2017-18, costing Welsh taxpayers £2m in clean-up costs.

Currently, residents can be issued with a fixed penalty notice if they fly-tip their waste themselves.

A Welsh Government report suggests that 60 per cent of fly-tipping incidents originate from domestic households – often the result of the householder failing to check where the waste will end up when allowing an unauthorised person to take it away.