ALMOST 1400 fly-tipping incidents have been reported to Warrington Borough Council in the last three years – but just one prosecution has been carried out.

It has cost the council £7135 to deal with the 1390 matters.

In the 2012-13 period the council was notified of 378 incidents, 546 in 2013-14 and 466 in 2014-15.

Costs of £221 were used to tackle the issues in 2012-13, £2596 the next and £4318 over the past year but only one prosecution, which was made in 2013-14, has been brought.

And the council insists it is doing all it can to stamp out the problem to ensure communities across the town are not hit by it.

A spokesman said: "The environmental crime officers are keen to investigate fly-tipping in the borough.

"We are currently reviewing the types and frequency of fly-tipping reports that come in to the council to establish the best possible way of working to ensure the small team can work as efficiently and effectively as possible to deter and tackle fly-tippers.

"In order to effectively enforce, the team first need evidence from within the fly-tipped waste to identify where it has come from, for example addressed mail, or they need reports from the public that identifies who has dumped the waste or provides a lead for officers to investigate, for example a vehicle registration number.

"Many of the fly-tipping reports in Warrington relate to residential waste, this mainly includes additional bags of rubbish left out next to rubbish bins rather than the more traditional fly-tipping we may all think of.

"We appreciate that it is often difficult to witness fly-tipping taking place but the team need the public to act as their eyes and ears and report as much information as possible in order for the team to target their enforcement activities, for example names and addresses of individuals involved, descriptions of individuals involved, car vehicle registrations and details of vehicles involved and times of day when the incident occurred."

To report any issues call 443322 or visit warrington.gov.uk/report.