Fly-tipping worsens across region

A major campaign is being introduced to tackle the growing problem of fly-tipping in the East Midlands.

Across the region there were more than 40,000 recorded incidents last year.

And an investigation by the Countryside Alliance discovered that illegally dumped rubbish cost the taxpayer £100m over the same period.

Authorities said it was hard to catch the tippers in the act. Only one in 100 is prosecuted for an offence carrying a maximum penalty of five years in jail.

More than half of the incidents recorded last year in the East Midlands occurred in Nottinghamshire, mainly in the city of Nottingham.

'Blight'

In Derbyshire, there were 9,320 call-outs costing almost £500,000.

And in Leicestershire there were 12,000 cases costing more than £500,000.

The Countryside Alliance said nationally about 67% of farmers were affected by the problem, which cost them up to £47m.

"People that would normally be very law-abiding citizens think nothing of really just going and dumping something in the countryside, which not only costs people money personally, it's a blight on our rural communities," said spokeswoman Clare Rowson.

Steve Quick of Leicester City Council's Environmental Crime Team said the problem was getting worse in towns too.

"It is a major problem and it's increasing," he said, "We've got all sorts of stuff and in commercial amounts, tyres, building rubble, probably the worst sort of example that we tend to get in the city,"

He added that even asbestos had been found - a material expensive to dispose of legally as it is hazardous waste.