The region's councils dealt with more than 106,000 incidents of illegal dumping between April 2007 and March 2008.

Only one in 300 cases have come to court, but council bosses have vowed to get tough on offenders by stepping up patrols and installing CCTV cameras to catch them in the act.

Figures obtained by the Yorkshire Post under the Freedom of Information Act show that local authorities spent £2,816,988 on removing fly-tipped rubbish.

The true figure is likely to be far higher, however, as three councils – Kirklees, Selby and North Lincolnshire – were unable to provide cost estimates.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has launched an initiative fronted by author Bill Bryson that aims to raise awareness about fly-tipping.

Head of campaigns at CPRE Ben Stafford said: "It is truly shocking that it cost almost £3m to clean up fly-tipped waste in Yorkshire.

"This is taxpayers' money that could surely be far better spent in other ways, rather than cleaning up in the wake of the criminal actions of a small number of unscrupulous individuals.

"We need to stop people dropping litter and dumping waste, and we need meaningful action against those who persist in such squalid and antisocial behaviour."

Sheffield had the highest bill of all Yorkshire councils for the second year in a row, spending about £600,000 dealing with 60,207 incidents.

But the number of incidents has dropped by 45 per cent in the last 12 months, and the council has brought seven people to court after prosecuting only two people in the three previous years.

The council hopes to prosecute even more offenders in 2008-09 by setting up CCTV cameras at known troublespots.

"Officers have only recently bought the new CCTV cameras and there is some good sighting evidence coming through, but these cases take a while to come through the courts," a council spokesman said.

"The additional prosecutions follow a more focused and tougher line of enforcement, and we are very hopeful that these CCTV cameras will lead to more prosecutions next year."

Leeds Council spent more than £475,000 on dealing with fly-tipped rubbish, while Bradford came third with a £400,000 bill.

The problem is not confined to the region's biggest cities, however, as councils in Scarborough, Doncaster and Barnsley also incurred six-figure bills.

More than 2,200 fly-tipping incidents were recorded in the predominantly rural areas run by East Riding, Harrogate, Hambleton, Richmondshire, Ryedale and Craven councils.

The Yorkshire Post revealed last year that the region's councils spent more than £7m on removing fly-tips between January 2004 and July 2007.

Scarborough Council said stopping fly-tippers had become the number one priority for its new recycling and waste enforcement unit.

The council prosecuted 15 fly-tippers during 2007-08, but most of those came in the last two months of the year after officers began patrolling troublespots around the clock.


Fly-tipping: council costs
Sheffield £600,000

Leeds £475,000

Bradford £400,000

Doncaster £188,685

Wakefield £188,650

Barnsley £186,440

Rotherham £176,000

Hull £85,470

East Riding £65,000

Calderdale £59,544

North East Lincs £57,000

York £55,550

Harrogate £31,100

Hambleton £17,013

Richmondshire £6,400

Ryedale £4,766

Craven £3,778

Figures for April 07-March 08