Fly-tipping laws must be revised, says the CLA (Country Land and Business Association), as they meet the Government's Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) minister Joan Ruddock.
The CLA is calling for an amendment to the Environment Protection Act 1990, to ensure that landowners do not have to pay the clean-up costs when hazerdous waste is dumped on their land.
Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, the CLA's President, said: 'The law as it stands is unfair to landowners who have already made every attempt to keep fly-tippers out.
'Most landowners accept the need to clear up ordinary household waste from time to time but they should not be expected to pick up the far greater tab for tipping of hazardous waste.'
The Environment Agency instead should pay for the land to be cleaned, and prosecute those responsible - provided landowners have taken all reasonable precautions.
Country Life's 2008 manifesto recently called for verges to be cleaned up, highlighting how litter is a serious problem for the countryside.
Country Life manifesto - our statement on litter:
CLEAN UP OUR VERGES Don t use the side of the road as a rubbish dump, and make your disapproval of those who do apparent. One third of all drivers chucks out litter, usually the debris from a mobile picnic; almost 100% of the 25 million tons dropped in total each year is food and drink packaging. Every weekend, some 1.3 million pieces of litter are discarded on Britain s roads, leading to our attractive green verges being blighted by food packets, bags, glass and cans, which cause the death or injury of 69,000 animals each year.
The CLA will today call on fly-tipping laws to be revised, when they meet the Government's Defra minster Joan Ruddock.
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