Action call on 'shocking' Shropshire fly-tipping

The latest figures shows that there were 15,210 recorded times when rubbish was dumped illegally across Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire over the past three years.

And the numbers are a lot higher in Telford — with the figures rising every year from 2,753 in 2012 to 4,524 in the last calendar year.

In neighbouring authority Shropshire, the picture looks slightly brighter with 1,320 in 2012/13, rising to 1,660 in 2013/14 and decreasing to 1,474 in the last financial year.

Nationally, incidents of rubbish dumped illegally and the costs of dealing with it have risen for the second year running, responses from more than 200 local authorities to a Freedom of Information request suggest.

Christina Webster, a campaigner determined to clean up Bridgnorth, today urged local authorities to do more.

She said: "These figures are shocking and we find that even basic litter is a big enough problem let alone people dumping sofas and mattresses.

"Even if our group of volunteers who pick up litter in Bridgnorth wanted to tackle fly-tipping we couldn't because you would need vans and equipment to do so. The council needs to take more action."

The total for Telford & Wrekin over the past three years was 10,756 recorded incidents and in Shropshire it was 4,454.

The number of fly-tipping incidents rose slightly in 2014/2015 to 529,462 cases across 201 councils who gave information for the past three financial years, up from 527,777 the previous year – and with both years significantly higher than in 2012/2013.

The figures suggest the upward trend in fly-tipping across England, seen in official statistics from the Environment Department (Defra) last year with a 20 per cent increase in incidents in 2013/14, could be continuing.

And while many councils, including Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin, said they were unable to supply figures for the price of cleaning up after fly-tippers as it was included in overall street cleaning budgets.