Fly-tipping on private land still a major concern

Fly-tipping incidents on private land remain a serious issue for farming, said the NFU today, despite new government figures revealing a decline in fly-tipping and an increase in enforcement action in the last year.

The annual Defra fly-tipping in England statistics, released this week, showed a 13.5 per cent decrease in the number of incidents dealt with by local authorities in the last year compared to 2009/10. They also showed a 5.8 per cent increase in enforcement action to prevent, detect or take action against fly tipping.

However, the NFU is concerned that an increase in action on public land may well have the knock-on effect of increasing fly-tipping incidents on private land where people are less likely to be punished, and of which there are no official statistics.

NFU environment policy adviser Nicola Dunn said: “We welcome the commitment by government to consider this issue as a result of the Farming Regulation Taskforce and the Waste Policy Review.

“Although the statistics appear positive, the data doesn’t include information on incidents on private land and dealt with by landowners. We are concerned about the knock-on effects of an increase in action on public land, as this could increase incidents elsewhere.

“Fly-tipping is still a major issue for our members, but one for which no official figures exist. That’s why we are continuing to ask our members to fill in our online survey when they are fly-tipped. We need to be able to show government the true extent of the problem and to monitor trends. Without this data we’re only getting half the picture.

“We will continue to work with Defra and other bodies through the National Fly-tipping Prevention Group to come up with workable solutions to this problem.”