Fly tipping is not a victimless crime

Country Land and Business Association (CLA) President Victoria Vyvyan says "Report, report, report to highlight the extent of the crime"

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William Blake's "green and pleasant land" is under siege from fly-tipping on a mass scale. This is not just litter blotting the landscape, this is organised crime; tonnes of household and commercial waste dumped which can often be hazardous - even including asbestos and chemicals - endangering farmers, wildlife, livestock, crops and the environment.

The latest figures from Defra show that there were more than one million flytipping incidents recorded on public land in England last year, bringing the total to five million cases in five years. But huge numbers of incidents occur on privately-owned land, painting an even more damaging picture of the financial burden and environmental impact flytipping brings.

Farmers and landowners are responsible for removing fly-tipped rubbish. The CLA estimates that our members pay on average £1,000 to remove waste. This is not a victimless crime - in some cases they have paid up to £100,000 to clear up other people's mess or risk facing prosecution themselves, a fundamental injustice.