FLYTIPPING is on the rise across the country - with figures showing taxpayers in the North-East and North Yorkshire alone footed a bill of almost £1m last year to clear up illegally-dumped waste.

Incidents of rubbish dumped illegally - and the costs associated with it - are on the rise, responses from 11 local authorities across the region showed.

Residents in County Durham footed a bill of £592,000 last year to deal with more than 8,700 incidents of fly tipping across the county - the highest cost in the region.

While it was one of only two of the region's authorities to show a fall in fly tipping in the year 2014-2015, with 8,779 incidents, down from 9,004 the year before, its bill actually rose.

Despite having one of the worst-affected areas for rubbish dumping, Durham County Council prosecuted just four people last year.

Hartlepool and Darlington were the riskiest places to be a fly tipper, as they had the highest number of prosecutions, with 55 and 65 last year, despite having a relatively low number of incidents, at 1,296 and 2,994.

Middlesbrough, Gateshead and Darlington said they could not provide figures for the price of cleaning up after fly-tippers as it was included in the overall street cleaning budgets or contracts.

Across the UK, the number of fly-tipping incidents rose slightly to 529,462 cases across 201 councils, up from 527,777 the previous year.

The figures suggest the upward trend in fly-tipping across England, seen in official statistics from the Environment Department (Defra) last year with a 20 per cent increase in incidents in 2013/2014.

Across the country, the costs of fly-tipping to the public purse hit £16.2m last year.

Part of the rise in incidents is thought to be down to the low cost of household goods and to people moving house more often, with figures showing 11 per cent of all households moved in 2013/2014.

Councils are using a number of measures to tackle the problem, including investigating rubbish for evidence of where it came, using CCTV and hidden cameras, running patrols with police and education campaigns to warn residents they are responsible for where their waste ends up.

The Local Government Association wants extra powers for councils to issue on-the-spot fines for some fly-tipping cases, saving the councils the costs of going to court.

Peter Box, the LGA's environment spokesman, said: "New powers would ensure councils can go even further in addressing what is often not just an eyesore, but also a serious public health risk, creating pollution and attracting vermin."