Farmers join police operation to tackle fly tipping in North Yorkshire

Cleaning up rubbish can often cost farmers thousands to remove
Cleaning up rubbish can often cost farmers thousands to remove

A new initiative named Operation Eyeball has been formed to tackle fly tipping in rural parts of North Yorkshire.

Bringing together North Yorkshire Police, alongside farmers and the NFU, the operation will allow the sharing of intelligence and information to tackle the crime.

A key element will be planned and targeted enforcement action days, the police say, alongside gathering and sharing intelligence around fly tipping hot spots, suspect vehicles and waste carriers.

It comes as farmers urge the government to take action to protect the countryside from fly-tippers who are ruining Britain's landscape with "giant piles of waste".

Taxpayers had to cough up £58m to clear over one million incidents of fly-tipping in England during 2016-17.

It is the fourth year in a row that incidents increased, according to new government figures by Defra.

Large scale coordinated dumping continues to be a regular occurrence in the countryside, with many incidents involving clinical waste and rubbish from construction and demolition.

Cleaning up rubbish can often cost farmers thousands to remove. For example, a landowner was left with a bill running over £100,000 after he was left more than 250 tonnes of rubbish on his field.

Supt Paula Booth, of North Yorkshire Police said: "Fly-tipping is a selfish crime that blights local environments and spoils people’s enjoyment of our towns and countryside. It is a source of pollution, a potential danger to public health and a hazard to wildlife.

“By working together, we can tackle this issue. We also need help from the public – if you find or witness fly-tipping, wherever it is, record as many details about the incident and the waste as you can.”

The operation follows the launch of a new service in partnership with the charity Crimestoppers and the NFU, becoming the UK's first “Rural Crime Reporting Line”.

The launch is part of the industry's continued work to tackle the serious issues surrounding criminal behaviour on farms and in the wider countryside.