A 228 page report, commissioned by the government and out today, warns that illegal fly tipping will almost double if "pay as you throw" charges for rubbish collection or dumping at official sites are introduced.
What a surprise! I could have told them that - indeed I did tell them that - in blogs and FW articles several months ago when the charging scheme was first floated. I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of pounds of tax payers money have been paid to the environmental consultants, Eunomia, to confirm what was already blindingly obvious.
For what it's worth, Eunomia said the charges would lead to a huge increase in the amount of refuse being dumped in lay-bys, neighbours bins and the countryside and that this would add £39mill to the national cost of cleaning it up. Eunomia also confirmed that there was a doubling of flytipping between 2004/5 and 2005/6.
Ministers appear to labour under the illusion that everyone in this country cares and has a concience about such matters and will obey the law and pay whatever is charged when they say so. Sorry, but a substantial minority do not. Yet more proof, I'm afraid , that politicians and civil servants don't live in the real world in which many people will try to get away without paying their debt to society if they think they can. And in most cases they do.
Better policing and more prosecutions might help a little. But free collection from the roadside (paid for from public funds in lieu of saving clear-up costs like those suggested above) is the only way such anti-social individuals might change their ways. As todays report implies, "fining" them would simply make matters worse. The government must think again.