Calls for change to beat scourge of fly-tipping

However, for many farmers and landowners in the countryside it is also the weekend when they wake up to find piles of rubbish dumped illegally on their land.

Some Yorkshire farmers pay more than 1,000 each year to get rid of illegal waste from their holdings, leading rural and farming leaders to call for a change in the current system.

Currently, many municipal rubbish dumps do not accept waste brought in commercial vehicles without charging, despite it being a mode of transport favoured by many landowners. Similarly different authorities have different rules governing when it is their responsibility to clean up waste and when it is the landowners.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) warned people this weekend to be aware of the danger of 'cowboy' fly-tippers and to think twice before accepting offers from strangers claiming they can cheaply dispose of waste materials.

CLA President and Yorkshire landowner William Worsley said: "Fly-tipping is a major problem for farmers and land managers all year round but the May Bank Holidays have been traditionally particularly bad.

"The owners of the land where waste is dumped have to remove it themselves, often at considerable cost. If this isn't done quickly, more fly-tipping often takes place and the pile grows and grows.

"We are asking everyone with waste to dispose of it properly and legally."

Mr Worsley was himself the victim of flytipping in the past few days, having a pile of rubbish dumped at gates near his home at Hovingham, North Yorkshire.

He said many farmers and landowners were afraid of reporting fly-tipping incidents for fear of being fined or incurring heavy costs when they have done nothing wrong.

The CLA wants local authorities to accept fly-tipped waste without charge, to halt the prosecution of people who have hazardous waste dumped on their land and adopt a zero tolerance approach to perpetrators of flytipping to help raise awareness of the problem.

George Winn-Darley, a landowner at Buttercrambe, near Stamford Bridge, estimates he spends more than 1,000 a year cleaning up waste dumped on his land.

"We have very regular incidences of dumping here," he said."We have had everything from organic vegetation from people's gardens right through to household waste like furniture.

"I suspect the majority of farmers and landowners are so put off by the costs of disposal that they are tempted to burn it or bury it. The system is failing."

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