Fly-tipping costs £100-a-minute

Wednesday, 2 March 2005 12:00 AM

New Government figures have revealed that local authorities are spending almost £100 a minute clearing up illegally dumped rubbish.

It suggests that some fly-tips ever 35 seconds in England and Wales, with the most common offence being dumping a black bag of household rubbish by the side of the road.

Abandoned fridges, freezers and washing machines are also a major problem, with almost 28,000 left out in the open between July and December 2004.

"Fly-tipping is a serious environmental crime that will not be tolerated," Environment Minister Elliot Morley said today.

"Almost 250,000 black bags are left somewhere they shouldn't be every year, and each one costs £40 to clear away. That's about £10 million that local authorities could be spending on preventing fly-tipping, and improving their neighbourhoods in general.

"But it's not just the monetary cost, it's the environmental damage that any discarded rubbish can cause, as well as the loss of community pride."

The information released today has been gathered by a new national fly-tipping database set up by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency and the Local Government Association last year.

Flycapture records all incidents of illegal dumping and enables the authorities to focus their resources on problem areas.

Head of the Environment Agency Barbara Young explained: "Flycapture is not simply a database for keeping records, it is an enforcement tool that will, and already is, helping us and local authorities to target and catch these criminals that have no regard for our health and environment.

"Using this information we will work together with local authorities on a targeted crackdown in problem areas to beat this problem."

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