The official fly-tipping statistics for England, released today, show a nine per cent decrease in the number of incidents on public land between 2010/11 and 2011/12. However, NFU research on fly-tipping on private property shows a 64 per cent increase over the same period.
This comes despite Farming Regulation Task Force recommendations that farmers should be able to dispose of fly-tipped waste free of charge at local authority sites. Defra’s proposed solutions contained in its Fly-tipping Partnership Framework fell short of the recommendations and left the decision on how they would tackle the problem of fly-tipping in their area up to local authorities.
NFU environment adviser Dr Nicola Dunn said: “Although the statistics appear positive, the data doesn’t include information on incidents on private land that are dealt with by landowners. It appears to us that there could be a knock-on effect due to increased action on public land, appearing as an increase in incidents on private land. This is completely counter-productive – we want to see a solution for fly-tipping on all land, both public and private.
“It is extremely disappointing that fly-tipping on private land remains a significant problem for farmers. Until Government acknowledges that action is needed to deal with the problem on all land, we don’t believe the problem will be effectively resolved. Farmers are frustrated when they, the victims of a crime, are left to clear up dumped waste and pay the local authority to dispose of it. That’s just not right.”