The Government's plans to impose Euro-style taxes for the collection of household rubbish, on top of council tax, have been condemned by Anne Marie Morris who warned it would lead to a "massive surge" in fly-tipping.
Anne Marie voiced her concerns following the end of Whitehalls consultation period over the new tax scheme. The small print of the Government's own 228 page research reveals the new taxes will almost double the level of fly-tipping in England. The Government research estimates that bin taxes will lead to an additional 155,000 tonnes of fly-tipping a year across England. This would be the equivalent to an average 440 tonnes of rubbish being dumped across Newton Abbot.
The taxes will almost double the amount that town halls currently spend on cleaning up fly-tipping. Last year Teignbridge District Council had to deal with 981 fly-tipping incidents. Research by the Countryside Alliance has found that black bags full of domestic rubbish already account for 63% of all fly-tipping; yet just one in every hundred fly-tippers is actually prosecuted.
Anne Marie Morris said:
"Under Labour fly-tipping has become endemic. Yet Whitehall plans for new taxes on family homes will make it even worse. We all want to increase the level of recycling, but bin taxes will harm the local environment by leading to a surge in illegal dumping and backyard burning.
"Whether they cant or won't pay, I fear many irresponsible people will dump instead and no-one believes that council taxes would fall if bin taxes were introduced. Bin taxes arent a green tax - they are yet another stealth tax from Gordon Brown.
"We in Newton Abbot live in a mixed constituency, both urban and rural. The natural beauty of our countryside, the places we walk, cycle, ride our horses and take our families for picnics would be sullied by the increased effects of fly-tipping.
"This tax cannot be allowed for the good reason that whilst it takes £1.4 million to deal with our rubbish annually it will cost far more to police a constituency such as ours in order to identify and fine those who will dump more of their rubbish on our doorstep."