ONLY £400 in fines were handed out as fly-tippers made 3,558 separate dumps.

According to figures revealed through a Freedom of Information request, since 2012 an average of 593 fly-tipping incidents have been dealt with by Wokingham Borough Council each year.

Numbers peaking in 2015 with 716 tips.

With each costing the council £50 to clean up on average, the cost to the public purse has been £177,900.

The council appears unable to stem the filthy flow however.

After 1,321 investigations were opened to identify the tippers responsible, £400 was collected in fines - across the whole five year period.

Even armed with new on-the-spot fining powers granted by central government in 2016, fly tippers seemingly remain beyond the arm of the law, with no penalty notices handed out in the subsequent year.

Norman Jorgensen, executive member for environment, sports, environmental health, leisure and libraries, said the council's focus had been on prevention, despite the fact that the number of incidents reported each year has remained steady.

He said: “Our main thrust for combating fly tipping has been prevention and we’ve been working hard within the Rural Crime Action Group, a partnership between the Council and Police, to try to achieve this.

"However, we’ve looked at the incidents and have agreed to take a more robust approach on prosecutions where we have evidence. We have teamed up with Buckinghamshire County Council’s Enforcement Team and are now progressing regular cases for prosecution.

"We will review this to assess whether this helps reduce the number of incidents.”