FLYTIPPED waste is discovered in Brighton and Hove four times a day on average, new figures reveal.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs data shows 1,527 flytipping incidents were reported to Brighton and Hove City Council in 2020-21.

This was down from the 2,100 the year before.

The Country Land and Business Association said the "disgraceful behaviour" blights the countryside and warned the true extent of flytipping across England is probably even higher than feared.

The city council carried out 1,536 enforcement actions in 2020-21, including 1,424 fixed penalty notices.

However, no fines resulting from court convictions were issued in the area last year – and none was issued in 2019-20.

Across England, a record 1.1 million incidents of rubbish dumped on highways and beauty spots were found in 2020-21, up from 980,000 the previous year.

But the number of court fines halved from 2,672 to just 1,313 – with their total value decreasing from £1.2 million to £440,000.

The CLA, which represents rural businesses, said the vast majority of flytipping happens on private land, which the figures do not cover.

Mark Tufnell, president of the CLA, said: “These figures do not tell the full story of this disgraceful behaviour which blights our beautiful countryside.

“Flytipping continues to wreck the lives of many of us living and working in the countryside and significant progress needs to be made to stop it.

“It’s not just the odd bin bag but large household items, from unwanted sofas to broken washing machines, building materials and even asbestos being dumped across our countryside.”

Brighton and Hove saw 5.2 flytipping incidents per 1,000 people last year which was well below the average across England of 20.1.

Household waste accounted for 692 incidents last year – 45 per cent of the total.

Sarah Lee, director of policy and campaigns at the Countryside Alliance, said: “From quiet rural lanes and farmers’ fields to bustling town centres and residential areas, flytipping continues to cause misery across the country.

“Lockdown and the subsequent closure of tips only exacerbated this situation and we would urge local authorities to think very carefully about preventing access to these facilities in future.”

The government said the first national coronavirus lockdown affected many local authorities’ recycling programmes, and that changes to household purchasing may also have driven the increased flytipping.

Resources and Waste Minister Jo Churchill said: “During the pandemic, local authorities faced an unprecedented challenge to keep rubbish collections running and civic amenity sites open and the government worked closely with them to maintain these critical public services.

“We have already given local authorities a range of powers to tackle flytipping and we are going further, strengthening powers to detect and prosecute waste criminals through the new Environment Act, consulting on introducing electronic waste tracking and reforming the licensing system."

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