THE price of clearing and disposing of illegally dumped waste cost local authorities in the East of England more than £4million last year, according to the latest Government figures.

THE price of clearing and disposing of illegally dumped waste cost local authorities in the East of England more than £4million last year, according to the latest Government figures.

A report from the Department for Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) found there were 70,000 fly-tipping incidents in East Anglia between April 2005 and March 2006 - an average of 5,833 a month.

As a result, district and borough councils in the region had to spend more than £4million for disposal and clearance.

It has led to fears that illegally dumped waste is blighting the East Anglian countryside and that it will put people off from visiting the area.

Scott Dolling , destination marketing manager at the Suffolk Development Agency, said: “Part of Suffolk's charm and attraction is the beautiful countryside we boast. Fly-tipping and littering in general can create a bad impression both for visitors and residents alike.”

However, council officials in both Suffolk and Essex say they have made significant steps in reducing the problem and the number of incidents is falling.

In Babergh, which covers south Suffolk, there were 342 cases of fly-tipping in 2005/06 at a cost of £15,942 - around £5,000 less than the year before.

Jo Hart, the authority's technical officer for waste, said: “We have implemented a number of prevention, information and education initiatives in order to try and stop this particular type of anti-social behaviour.”

A spokesperson for St Edmundsbury Borough Council said the area did not have a problem with fly-tipping and the number of incidents had reduced from 629 in 2004/05 to 598 in 2005/06 and to 36 in the first four months of this financial year.

Meanwhile in Ipswich the borough council forked out £19,168 in 2005/06 to clean and dispose of 375 incidents - an average of £1,600 a month.

In Essex, Tendring District Council had no specific figures for the cost of fly-tipping, however a spokesperson said it had been making significant steps to combat the problem over the last six months.

Meanwhile, the cost of recovering and cleaning up after fly-tipping cost Braintree District Council £125,612 in the year up to March.

In Colchester, the cost is incorporated into the borough council's street cleaning budget, which totals more than £1 million.

A spokesman for the council said: “It would not be fair to say it is a considerable chunk of this budget. Although it is a significant, it is not a massive percentage. Fly-tipping is not a big problem in Colchester.”