FLYTIPPERS are costing Burnley taxpayers more than £500,000 per year, latest figures have revealed.

Tackling dirty back yards and illegal dumping grounds has cost town hall environment bosses nearly £256,000, from April 2010 to March 2011.

And the cost of enforcement action, over the same period, to take flytippers to task, is said to be £264,500, according to a Freedom of Information Act request released by the borough council.

Burnley has one of the most successful records in the country for tackling anti-social litter louts and notched up more than 180 prosecutions during 2010-11.

The FoI request also gives an insight into the scale of the problem faced by the borough’s environmental health and Streetscene teams.

An estimated 3,222 of fly-tipping incidents involved ‘small van loads’ of rubbish and household waste.

But nearly 500 were classified as ‘transit van loads, and a further 27 as the equivalent of a tipper truck.

Work on tackling the issue, focusing particularly on the likes of Bank Hall, Healey Wood and Burnley Wood, led to 7,637 enforcement actions being taken by the authority.

Speaking earlier this year Coun Neil Mottershead, community safety cabinet member, said in a full council report: “The council is maintaining its approach in targeting specific hot spot areas within the borough.”

Council solicitor Jonathan Jackson told the Lancashire Telegraph that absentee landlords were slowly getting the message about allowing rubbish to accumulate in the rear yards of empty properties.

Last week the Lancashire Telegraph reported how offenders carrying out community service orders were being used to tidy up problem areas across Burnley and Padiham.