TAXPAYERS in Maldon spent more than £20,000 on clearing flytipping, new figures have revealed.

There were almost twice as many cases of flytipping in the district in 2016/17 compared to 2015/16, and the costs of clearing the waste totalled £22,276.

Newly released figures from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) revealed the scale of the problem.

In just 12 months councils in the region forked out more than £4 million on cleaning up after flytippers.

The Defra figures only account for flytipping incidents on council land, not private land where landowners often have to pay to have it cleared themselves.

In 2015/16, there were 183 reported cases of flytipping on land; last year that figure rose to 309.

The figure including private land would be far higher.

William Nicholl, from insurance specialists Lycetts, said: “With many authorities looking at introducing charges for bulky waste and organic waste collections and charging for dumping waste at council-run tips, there is a fear that flytipping incidents on farmland will increase.”

He urged people to “be vigilant, communicate with neighbours and report suspicious vehicles to the authorities” to avoid being hit with large fines for waste you haven’t dumped.