Fly tipping continues to be a blight on the countryside
New figures released today from DEFRA show that there were more than a million fly-tipping incidents on public land in the last year, but this isn’t the full story
New figures released by DEFRA today show 1.09 million fly-tipping incidents on public land were reported to local councils in 2021/2022.
The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) which has a membership of around 27,000 rural businesses and landowners across England and Wales believes that these figures only represent half of the story.
These figures only account for waste that has been dumped illegally on public land and does not include incidents which have occurred on privately-owned land. Causing significant financial burden and environmental impact to the land or business owner, this highlights the need for change within the current fining and imprisonment laws.
The CLA Midlands represents thousands of farmers, landowners and rural businesses in counties across the region.
These figures barely show the full extent of this crime which is having a devastating effect on the rural economy and communities. The system needs to be inclusive of private land and business owners so that the true extent of this issue can be evaluated and dealt with. The perpetrators have little or no consideration of the effect of their actions, with no thought about the impact of their crime on the environment, wildlife and landowners who have the financial burden of removing their waste. The penalties for fly-tipping, which are rarely enforced, need to be tougher to help remove this eyesore on our beautiful countryside