Farmers demand action as fly-tipping in countryside 'spirals out of control'

The burden of fly-tipping on the countryside is 'spiralling out of control', the NFU has warned

Farmers are urging 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.

Numerous rural organisations have spoke of different ways to combat the plight of rubbish.

The NFU believes a joined-up approach is needed involving the Government, local authorities and police to help farmers battle the issue.

Under current rules farmers and landowners are left facing hefty bills to remove vast amounts of rubbish dumped illegally on their land.

'Scourge of the countryside'

NFU Deputy President Minette Batters said fly-tipping really has become the "scourge" of the countryside.

“The rubbish can be costly and time consuming for farmers and landowners to remove, it’s dangerous to human health, harmful to wildlife and livestock and in some cases, fly-tipped waste pollutes watercourses and contaminates land,” Ms Batters said.

“While farmers and landowners do all they can to prevent fly-tippers, such as installing gates, barriers, warning signs and installing security cameras and lighting, in many cases we have found that deterrents do not work.”

Ms Batters said fly-tippers are people "intent" on breaking the law, and "think nothing" of cutting padlocks, breaking gates and smashing cameras.

She continued: “We need to clamp down on this huge and growing problem. The NFU wants to see Government pull together a national picture of fly-tipping and use it to coordinate all agencies to target and deter offenders.

“We believe better communication between Government, local authorities, police forces and the Environment Agency will give those impacted more confidence to report incidents that in turn will lead to investigation and prosecution.”

Fly-tipping Tsar

The CLA, a rural organisation which represents landowners, farmers and rural businesses, has called for vehicles to be seized as the default penalty for fly-tipping as part of tougher punishments for waste crime.

The group also recommends enforcing fines for home and business owners whose waste is found in fly-tipped locations and appointing a ‘Fly-Tipping Tsar’ to co-ordinate with national agencies on the scale of this organised crime.

CLA President Ross Murray said: “Fly-tipping is just getting worse and worse. It is a national disgrace. Prosecutions for this crime are ludicrously low, and have decreased by a further 25%.

“It is high time that Government took a much more active role in tackling this blight on the countryside. Today’s shocking figures don’t even include rubbish fly-tipped on private land, which landowners clear up as local authorities only clear from public land.

“Greater penalties should be imposed and enforced including seizing fly-tippers’ vehicles, and victims should be better supported. We are calling for the appointment of a national fly-tipping Tsar to co-ordinate and oversee a more pro-active effort to get to grips with this national disgrace.”