Just one in 50 cases of fly-tipping leads to prosecution, says campaign group

Only one in 50 cases of illegal fly-tipping leads to a prosecution, research by the Countryside Alliance has revealed.

The campaign group claimed the figure fell to three in 1,000 cases at rural local authorities.

The statistics – obtained under the Freedom of Information Act – suggested that fly-tipping cost taxpayers more than £40m in the last year.

Some 656,000 incidents of unlawful rubbish dumping were recorded in England and Wales between April 2010 and March 2011. The cost of clearing the waste was estimated at just under £25m.

“Fly-tipping is one of the most widespread problems facing the countryside and there is often a feeling that farmers and landowners are alone when it comes to dealing with this costly problem,” the Countryside Alliance claimed.

The group pointed out that if waste is dumped on private land, “the owner, irrespective of having no-part in the fly-tip, has a duty of care and is bound by law to clear it up at their own time and expense”.

More than 50% of land managers experience more than one fly-tipping incident each year, and report an average cost of £1,000 in dealing with each incident, it added.

Alice Barnard, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance, said: "Fly-tipping blights our countryside – ruining the beautiful views for which Britain is rightly famous, endangering wildlife and habitats and costing the taxpayer and landowner millions of pounds to clear up.

"The Coalition Government promised to end this scourge when they published the Waste Review this summer. This is a promising start, however they need to work closer with cash-strapped local authorities to tackle this blight. By raising the landfill tax in the budget and with more cuts coming to council budgets, this problem is only going to get worse.

"Fly-tipping is a crime that perpetrators can get away with. We need a coordinated plan which ensures people who fly-tip are caught and punished and provides greater support to local authorities and landowners who bear the brunt of the cost of clearing up the mess."