Loss of Anti Fly Tipping Bill a Missed Opportunity – Says CLA

Landowners who have already made every attempt to keep fly tippers out should not be penalised by costly clear up bills– according to the CLA, the rural economy experts.

The CLA says that the government's decision to block an attempt to shift the cost and responsibility for clearing up waste from private landowners to either the Environment Agency or local authorities will create more misery and mess in the countryside.

Bernard Jenkins ten minute rule Bill, which came before parliament today (March 11) would have brought about a fundamental – and much needed – change in the law. Under the Environmental Protection Act (1990) waste dumped on public land is removed by the local authority or the Environment Agency - but there is no such protection for private landowners. Landowners who are fly-tipped are threatened with prosecution unless they pay for the waste to be removed.

The amendment would have ensured that, where a landowner could prove he had taken all possible action to prevent waste being dumped in the first place, the clean-up cost would have been the responsibility of the EA or the local authority. The Government's own figures estimate that private landowners are currently footing a £50 million a year bill for clearing up rubbish which is illegally dumped on their land.

The CLA has been campaigning for a change in the law so that the burden of cost would not be left on the doorstep of private landowners.

CLA President, Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, describes the government's decision as a: "Missed opportunity to take positive action to tackle an increasingly difficult and worrying problem. This Bill came about because hazardous waste was illegally dumped on one of our member's land leaving him with a £3,000 bill for disposing of waste which was nothing whatsoever to do with him. How can that be either fair or reasonable?"

But the CLA President pointed out that there are problems beyond the direct costs which relate to pollution, tourism, health and safety and risks to livestock as well as the wider aesthetic impact.

CLA experts helped Mr Jenkins draw up the bill which would also have placed a legal responsibility on local authorities to investigate all complaints of fly tipping.

The MP and the CLA say they will continue their campaign to alter what is both a clear injustice and an unfair imposition on all landowners.

Mr Jenkins said:" The Government say my bill could be a 'fly-tippers' charter', but this is nonsense. A 'fly-tippers' charter' is exactly what the current legislation has created. My bill will stop the law turning victims of crime into criminals themselves. The Government admits that fly-tipping is a "significant problem", but they do not seem willing to do anything about it."