AN alliance of rural campaigning organisations have written to the government, strongly urging it to seize an opportunity to end the rural fly-tipping injustice.

Farmers who are victims of fly-tipping are currently legally responsible for clearing the waste that is dumped on their land - and if they fail to remove the waste, they can even be prosecuted by local authorities for having controlled waste on their land.

The letter comes after members of the House of Lords inflicted a series of defeats on the government, in a win for rural communities that have been blighted by fly-tipping.

Amendments tabled by peers have the potential to fix the system.

The government's Waste Crime Action Plan, published on March 19, acknowledged the injustice - rural campaigners are urging the minister to take this acknowledgement a step further, by accepting the amendments and fixing the broken system.

Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, stated: "The government has a real opportunity here to end the ridiculous current system in which farmers and rural people are penalised for being victims of waste crime.

"Accepting these amendments would do much to repair the government's broken relationship with the countryside, showing rural communities that the government does care about justice for the people who live and work there. We have heard warm statements from the government on this issue before - but they are not enough. Actions speak louder than words."

The amendments mentioned would make convicted offenders of fly-tipping automatically liable for the cost of removal and any damage caused, and force authorities to ensure that victims of fly-tipping are not left footing the bill.

Most crucially of all, they would place the duty on local authorities to collect the fly-tipped waste and seek to recover costs from offenders – a massive change that would do a great deal to incentivise councils to properly deal with problems by investigating and prosecuting effectively, all while relieving private victims of any clean-up costs.

NFU vice-president Robyn Munt said: “With over 1.26-million reported fly-tips in England last year, fly-tipping is a serious criminal offence that imposes a relentless and costly blight on our countryside. Currently, private landowners are forced to shoulder the financial burden of waste crime, a crime that forces farmland out of use, poses a threat to wildlife and places an unfair financial and emotional strain on British farmers and growers.

“We are calling on the government to urgently consider these amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, as until the system tackles waste crime at its source, the unjust burden fly-tipping places on British farmers and growers will continue.”

CLA president Gavin Lane said: “Farmers and land managers have had enough. The countryside is increasingly being targeted by organised crime gangs – often violent – who know that rural areas are under-policed and resourced.

“It’s not just litter blotting the landscape, but tonnes of household and commercial waste which can often be hazardous – even including asbestos and chemicals – endangering wildlife, livestock, crops and the environment. Farmers are victims yet have to pay clean up costs themselves.”