Councils counting cost of

ORGANISED CRIMINAL gangs are dumping lorry-loads of rubbish across the UK as part of an illegal waste clearing service.

Analysis found the number of incidents of large-scale fly-tipping has more than doubled since 2012.

Police and environmental groups say the nature of flytipping is changing - a shift driven by a surge in criminal gangs offering illegal waste clearing services.

Each year, councils across England and Wales collate the number, size and cost of illegal rubbish dumping in their areas.

Anything above the size of a lorry-load can be investigated by the Environment Agency, though the cost of clearance lies with the local council.

While the total number of fly-tipping incidents in England has hovered around the one million mark in recent years, the largest type of tips - sometimes covering whole parks - has risen 117 per cent since 2012.

The incidents are costly to clear and our analysis over has found councils have spent more than £59m on their removal since 2012.

In Calderdale the number of incidents increased over the period from 2011-12 to 2018-19.

And the figure for the individual years showed the number had varied year-onyear from 2015-16.

There were just eight incidents in 2011-12, rising to 72 in 2014-15, 82 in 2016-17, 56 in 2017-18, rising to 138 in 2018-19.

Calderdale Council’s cabinet member for public services and communities, Coun Susan Press, said: “Fly tipping is costly, ugly and spoils our environment. We continue to do all we can to tackle this serious crime and will not hesitate to prosecute those responsible.

“In order to catch the culprits we need evidence.