Farmers want the police and local authorities to step up action to prevent fly tipping. Calls were made on Monday when senior farming industry figures addressed the Keep Britain Tidy campaign’s annual conference in Leeds.

The NFU has claimed there is an “epidemic” of fly-tipping affecting the countryside, and has claimed up to two thirds of all farms in Britain have been affected by dumping of waste on their land. Last year there were an estimated 900,000 incidents of fly-tipping across England – a 5% increase from the previous year.
 
Crucially for the union, farmers must pay to have waste removed from their land, where it has been dumped.

In leeds, the NFU demanded that:

• Local authorities and the police assist landowners in the clean-up and reporting of fly- tipped waste
• All parties (Local authorities/Police/land owners/The Environment Agency) work together to prevent fly-tupping, clean up after illegal waste dumping and prosecute offenders.
• Changes to current rules saddling landowners with the responsibility for waste illegally dumped on their land.

Speaking at the Keep Britain Tidy conference, NFU Environment Forum member Phil Jarvis said, “We have seen a huge increase in the number of incidents in recent years and it really has become a scourge of farmland across the country.  The rubbish can be costly and time consuming for farmers to remove, it’s dangerous to human health, harmful to wildlife and livestock and in some cases, fly-tipped waste pollutes watercourses and contaminates land.
 
“What many people don’t realise is that when incidents of fly-tipping take place on private land it is the farmers and landowners’ responsibility to remove the illegally dumped waste, costing people hundreds of thousands of pounds every year.
 
“While farmers and landowners do all they can to prevent fly-tippers, such as installing gates, barriers and warning signs and installing security cameras and lighting, in many cases we have found that deterrents do not work. These fly-tippers are people intent on breaking the law and they think nothing of cutting padlocks, breaking gates and smashing cameras.
 
“To really clamp down on this huge and growing problem, we want to see more communication between local authorities, police forces and the Environment Agency to give those impacted more confidence to report, incidents that lead to investigation and prosecution, as well as more stop and search initiatives.
 
“The NFU is involved in some excellent regional partnership initiatives - the Hertfordshire Fly-tipping Group brings together key organisations to consider debate and act on major issues affecting rural parts of the county. We also have a place on the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group which encourages groups to work collaboratively by sharing information and intelligence. We will continue to lobby Government to support and enable farmers' and landowners' efforts to deter, remove and clear fly-tipped waste from private land.”