Fly-tipping in the Westcountry costs taxpayers £536,000
Fly-tipping is blighting rural environments across the Westcountry, according to new figures which have revealed almost 10,000 incidents in the last year at a cost to council tax payers of more than £500,000.
The shocking results of research by the Countryside Alliance, show that nationally the scale of the problem is such that rubbish is being illegally dumped more than once a minute.
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In Devon, farmer Richard Haddock said he was so fed up with people who brazenly drive on to his land and discard items such as fridges that he is planning to install CCTV cameras.
"It is criminal," said Mr Haddock, who has three farms near Brixham and Paignton.
"The courts should treat fly tippers like they are treating the rioters now – with the full force of the law."
Mr Haddock estimates he spends hundreds of pounds a week clearing up after people abandoning domestic waste and tradesman who fly tip in a bid to avoid expensive disposal charges.
"You name it and I have had it dumped on my land, TVs, cookers, builders' rubble, the lot.
"People will dump things in the gateway to a field or sometimes will open the gate, drive in and dump it."
He said fly-tipping and general littering was not only ugly and expensive, but dangerous to animals.
"Crisp packets are the worse because cows will lick them for the salt. I have had five or six cows which have swallowed crisp packets and, of course, it gets stuck in their intestines. We were only able to help three of those cows, the others died.
"People also dump plants, some of which are poisonous to the livestock. It's got so bad in the last two years that we are going to invest in CCTV cameras for some of the worst areas.
"I don't think it's thoughtlessness, it is simply criminal."
According to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, rural communities are plagued by fly-tipping.
In Devon and Cornwall alone, 9,901 incidents of unlawful rubbish dumping were recorded in the year from April 2010 to March 2011.
This cost councils in the two counties a total of £536,733 to clear up, dispose of rubbish properly and pursue enforcement action.
However, Alice Barnard, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said legal action is rarely taken with only one in 50 cases leading to a prosecution. In cash-strapped rural local authorities, the rate of prosecutions dropped to just 3 in every 1,000.
She said the total cost to local authorities nationwide of clearing and then enforcing legal and punitive actions was £40,128,197 million yet only £692,000 was collected in fines – less than 2 per cent of the money spent.
The Western Morning News recently reported how fly-tipping had increased by 700 per cent since charges were brought in at some waste disposal sites.
Mrs Barnard said: "Fly-tipping blights our countryside – ruining the beautiful views for which Britain is rightly famous, endangering wildlife and habitats and costing the taxpayer 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."
A spokeswoman for the Environment Department said it was taking action.
"Fly-tipping is inexcusable – it's lazy, causes pollution, costs taxpayers millions of pounds a year to clear up and spoils people's enjoyment of our iconic countryside.
"We're cracking down on these irresponsible criminals by introducing appropriate powers to seize vehicles, and looking at other penalties, which might include offenders taking part in clean-ups."
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by Martinbubba
Monday, September 05 2011, 9:56PM
“What on earth do we all expect, when councils up and down the country;team up with a privately owned very large multi-million pound company called May Gurney. This company is only concerned with profit not the peoples needs.
Torbay took away the green wheelie bins from those who wanted to keep them and gave them to others who didn't want them. They then gave us these disgusting ground level open black bins that attract all types of vermin to urinate and defecate inside. They then tell young mums in terraced houses with limited storage, to store them in their kitchens where toddlers crawl and explore. The same bins that a rat probably defecated in while out on the pavement waiting to be emptied.
Is it any wander people take things into their own hands and get rid of rubbish where ever they can as household collections are getting longer.
I don't condone the actions of the people who do fly tipping; but anyone with any sense can see there is a problem and it is stupid of the councils to bury their heads in the sand, hoping the problem will go away. As it will never go away as long as we have stupid politicians and those running the waste problem continuing down the ridiculous road they are going. I guarantee not only will it get worse; but public health will become a problem if intelligence doesn't come into play.”
by Jimmy20105
Sunday, September 04 2011, 4:06PM
“The councils introducing their £2 charge for disposing of a bag of rubble at the local tip has no doubt made this worse - I have to store up waste in my garden until I have enough to warrant paying £194 for a skip!
I'm sure this £2 charge is costing the council dear!”
by Azriel22
Sunday, September 04 2011, 3:30PM
“Without condoning fly-tipping in any way at all especially by commercial firms and rogue 'man and truck' rubbish clearance firms it's quite clear that the authorities should take ALL domestic refuse, either from local collection points or directly from householders free of charge - we are already paying through the nose via local council tax.
Clearly people who can afford the often exorbitant council charges for bulky item collection will pay. There are many in the West Country that a £20 collection charge represents a large proportion of their income. Is it any wonder that with an unwanted mattress costing £12 to collect that you find so many littering Torre?
Wherever I've lived in France, Spain or Italy the local taxes have been a fraction of what we pay here and ALL rubbish collection has been weekly or, when localised community bins are present, daily.”
by Terrywright1
Saturday, September 03 2011, 5:08PM
“Can't agree more TimothyR, and it's not only Torbay, it's everywhere. I have written to McDonalds with a cunning and cheap plan to combat the deadheads who frequent these places and dump their rubbish out of their cars, but really, they aren't interested. That said, these places are always going to keep their litter pickers in a job. Really the councils are partly to blame for the flytipping making the simple task of disposal difficult and in some cases very expensive. Oh dear, where is the answer?”
by conkerhead
Saturday, September 03 2011, 12:01AM
“Why don't these people just swat the flies, I can't believe people actually take them to the tip, it is a total waste of petrol innit.”
by TimothyR
Friday, September 02 2011, 7:37PM
“The council and the police should be targeting the morons who frequent the drive-thru restaurants like McDonalds, KFC, etc. - it's most often these outlets' rubbish you see floating around in the hedges and kerb sides in Torbay.”
by josdave
Friday, September 02 2011, 3:49PM
“It is free in many areas to dispose of white goods yet we often see fridges etc left out in the country. That is vandalism of a sort and this is not affected by the charges this is just complete lack of consideration. As for the businesses it cost money to dispose of their waste so it's only logical that they should pay towards it. If there were a deterrent in the form of a really hefty fine that could not be passed on maybe some of them would think twice but whatever the excuses they give they are creating an eyesore out of our countryside and should not be allowed to get away with it.”
by Taxman100
Friday, September 02 2011, 3:15PM
“I do not condone fly tipping under any circumstances. That said, I agree entirely with David Brooks.”
by josdave
Friday, September 02 2011, 2:44PM
“I can't believe it blame everyone except the selfish idiots who litter the countryside with their rubbish because they're too lazy or tight to dispose of it properly. They should be very heavily fined and made to pay for the clean up on top of that.”
by DavidPBrooks
Friday, September 02 2011, 2:24PM
“This epidemic is a direct result of the EU directed charges for landfill. Rubbish colection is now so expensive it is worth the small risk of getting caught to fly tip. If te charges were lowered or removed the need to fly tip would also disappear and we would not be left with an unsightly mess in the countryside. The costs would most probably balance out.
I think it was obvious to all but civil servants and the green party that this would be a direct result of charging high rates for rubbish disposal”