THERE were 14 fly-tipping incidents EVERY DAY in Blackburn with Darwen last year — as the number of incidents almost doubled.

But new figures for 2014/15 show the number of prosecutions for illegal dumping fell sharply. The borough council managed to punish just seven people out of 5,141 incidents.

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This compares with 2012/13 when there were 2,887 fly-tipping incidents in the borough and 26 prosecutions. In 2013/14 the figure was 3,476 incidents and 22 perpetrators taken to court.

Liberal Democrat councillor Paul Browne said the figures showed the borough’s Labour administration was not taking the problem seriously and leaving its streets and back-alleys dirty.

Sudell ward’s Cllr Browne said: “Our borough does not take tackling fly-tipping seriously.

“They just play around at the edges and these figures prove it. As a result we are becoming a dirty borough.

“I can show you dozens of streets, back-alleys and pieces of open ground which are an unhealthy mess because of fly-tipping.”

But the council’s deputy environment boss John Roberts said: “The borough is not going soft on fly-tipping.

“We take it very seriously and pursue a number of avenues against it.

“The annual prosecution figure is not a reliable measure of the level of enforcement activity.

“Courts are inconsistent in their treatment of fly-tipping and that is why we support an automatic £1,000 fixed penalty for this offence to hit those responsible in their pockets.”

Blackburn with Darwen’s figures compare sharply with Burnley where the council managed the highest prosecution rate for fly-tippers in England.

While the number of incidents of illegal rubbish dumping across Chorley, Hyndburn, Pendle and Rossendale rose, they managed just three prosecutions between them in 2014/15.

Burnley had the highest prosecution rate in 2014/15 with 92 for a total of 4,663 flytipping incidents.

The Freedom of Information request to local authorities across England by the Press Association showed the number of fly-tipping incidents rose slightly in 2014/15 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 2012/13.

Burnley revealed that in 2012/13 there were 3,932 incidents and 157 prosecutions and in 2013/14 the figure was 5,201 incidents and 107 prosecutions.

As well as having the highest prosecution rate, Burnley was one of just four boroughs outside London to make the top 10 for the highest number of fly-tipping incidents per 1,000 population.

Deputy council leader and cabinet member for the environment John Harbour said: “These figures just go to show how seriously we take this issue as an authority. We will always look to prosecute offenders.”

Chorley Council recorded 740 fly-tipping incidents in 2012/13, 863 in 2013/14, and 881 in 2014/15 but registered just one prosecution in 2013/2014.

Hyndburn, which acknowledged no prosecutions, registered 1,870 incidents in 2012/13 and 2,422 and 2,591 in the two following years.

Pendle recorded 1,946 incidents in 2012/13, 2,210 in 2013/14 and 2,212 in 2014/15 but no prosecutions over the thee-year period.

Rossendale had three prosecutions, all in 2014/15 when it recorded 423 fly-tipping incidents compared to 298 the previous year and 383 in 2012/13.

Hyndburn council leader Miles Parkinson: “Annual prosecution numbers are not a reflection of our activity to tackle fly-tipping.

“We take people to court when necessary as a final stage.

“The borough is currently holding a survey to see if Lancashire County Council’s decision to charge for dumping inert waste at its tips, including Whinney Hill, is making this problem worse.”

County environment chief Marcus Johnstone said: “These figures suggest there is no evidence that charging for inert waste to stop businesses using household tips has increased fly-tipping across Lancashire.”

A Defra spokesman said: “Fly-tipping blights communities and poses a risk to human health which is why tackling this issue is a priority for government.

“We will introduce fixed penalty notices for small scale fly-tipping.”

Chorley Council has launched a campaign posting a picture of each fly tip its officers find, where it is and the cost to clear it up on its Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Street cleaning boss Adrian Lowe said: “We also encourage residents to be our eyes and ears and report fly-tipping to us online or by phone. It can be done in confidence, particularly if they see it being done because if we do find out who’s responsible we will prosecute.”