THE Countryside Alliance has accused the government of being ‘all talk and no action’ after MPs failed to make the recommended changes surrounding fly-tipping laws to help farmers.

The amendments proposed by the charity and other campaigners would make convicted offenders of fly-tipping liable for the cost of removal and any damage caused.

Most crucially of all, they would place the duty on local authorities to collect the fly-tipped waste and seek to recover costs from offenders – rather than leave the landowner footing the bill.

Campaign groups have been pushing for change, citing that fly-tipping is one of the only crimes where the victims have to pay the cost of the damage done to them.

Earlier this month, during the Commons debate on Lords amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, the government rejected amendments made in the House of Lords which would have absolved landowners of responsibility for the cost of clearing up waste fly-tipped on their land.

The Countryside Alliance has said the move “will be seen as yet further confirmation by rural communities that they are not a priority”.

Farmers who are victims of fly-tipping are currently legally responsible for clearing the waste dumped on their land - and if they fail to remove the waste, they can even be prosecuted by local authorities for having controlled waste on their land.

Johnnie Furse, a spokesperson of the Countryside Alliance, commented: "Everyone agrees that the current system is a ridiculous injustice - even the government has admitted that. And so it beggars belief that now, when the opportunity was presented to the government to fix the broken system, they refused to do so.

"It seems that this government is all talk, and no action. If those in Westminster wish to prove otherwise, urgent action is direly needed."