THE government has reiterated its pledge to combat the scourge of illegal rubbish dumping in the countryside.

Earlier this year, one of the worst cases of rural fly-tipping saw an estimated 40 tonnes of industrial waste dumped in a country lane.

Police were callled to clear the mess which was left on a road in Walsham-le-Willows, Suffolk.

Now Defra minister Rory Stewart has repeated the governent's manifesto pledge to give councils more powers to tackle the problem.

Mr Stewart, who is also MP for Penrith and the Border, was responding to a parliamentary question by Beckenham MP Bob Stewart.

Tackling fly-tipping is a priority for the government," said the minister.

"As set out in our manifesto, we will be giving councils the power to issue fixed penalty notices for small-scale fly-tipping as well as reviewing the existing fixed penalty notices for littering.

"These steps will build on other government action to tackle fly-tipping"

This action included working with the sentencing council on its guideline for sentencing for environmental offences, which came into force on 1 July last year.

It also included making it easier for vehicles suspected of being involved in waste crime to be stopped, searched and seized.

Meanwhile, the government was continuing to work in partnership with others through the Defra chaired National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group.

The group was promoting and disseminating good practice in the prevention, reporting, investigation and clearance of fly-tipped waste.

Incidents of illegally dumped waste increased by 20% on public land in 2013, according to statistics released last autumn.

Local Authorities dealt with some 852,000 fly-tipping incidents at a clean-up cost to the public purse of £45.2m in 2013/14.