Flytipping down 7.5 per cent across England

Flytipping on public land across England has decreased by 7.5 per cent in a year, according to new figures published by Defra today.

As well as flytipping decreasing overall, enforcement action and successful prosecution for flytipping increased on previous years.

The key findings in the report are:

* Flytipping on public land is down overall by 7.5 per cent.

* The total number of flytipping incidents recorded, excluding Liverpool City Council (LCC), was 1.24 million in 2007-08.

* Twenty-six per cent increase in the number of enforcement actions issued by local authorities.

* There were 1,871 prosecutions for flytipping carried out in 2007-08 and 95 per cent of these achieved a successful outcome.

* Eleven per cent of all flytips involved single black bags.

* Fifty per cent of recorded flytips occurred on the highway.

* Sixty per cent of the flytips dealt with by local authorities involved household waste. This is approximately the same as 2006-07.

* Flytip incidents appeared 50 per cent higher last year due to a reporting anomaly by Liverpool City Council. This has now been corrected. Waste Minister Jane Kennedy said:

"Flytipping is unacceptable and a blight on public land. I am pleased to see the decrease in incidents but we still need to work on the serious environmental and social problem of flytipping.

"Local authorities are doing well in the fight against flytipping, and the increased number of successful prosecutions is encouraging.

No one should have to accept fly tipping in their area and I am determined to make flytipping a thing of the past."