The CLA today warned landowners to report waste dumped illegally in gateways, fields and hedgerows over the Christmas season so local police forces can measure the scale of the problem.
The Association said fly-tipping in rural areas increases over any holiday period, especially Christmas when the days are shorter and darker. The recently announced £5million fund to help the Environment Agency clamp down on illegal waste sites will certainly mean a surge in fly-tipping on private land if there are not enough legitimate places to get rid of garden, construction and scrap waste.
CLA President Harry Cotterell said: "Waste dumped illegally can contaminate land and rivers and threaten livestock and wildlife. If caught, fly-tippers could receive a custodial sentence and be fined up to £50,000. In reality, it is the private landowner who is left to settle a large clean-up bill and face prosecution.
"We are encouraged that Defra is looking at the CLA’s three-point action plan on how to deal with environmental crime as part of the Waste Review. Early discussions have included how a scheme for local tips to accept fly-tipped waste could work and we’ll be working closely with other industry partners to develop this in 2012."
The CLA’s action plan to tackle environmental crime calls for the Government to ensure local authorities can accept fly-tipped waste without charge to landowners; an end to the prosecution of landowners who have waste dumped on their land and have to pay to remove it, and the creation of the right policy framework for local authorities to work with police forces on a zero-tolerance approach to the perpetrators.
