7 August 2012 Last updated at 06:42 ET

GMB union study reveals fly tipping crimes in South West

More than 37,000 fly tipping incidents were reported by 36 councils in the south west

Almost 7,000 fly-tipping incidents took place in Cornwall and Plymouth in 2010-11, according to a study by the GMB public services union.

Plymouth Council reported 3,792 fly-tipping incidents, with Cornwall Council saying it had 3,144 incidents.

Almost £160k was spent by Plymouth Council clearing up last year but the figure is lower than the previous year.

More than 37,000 incidents were reported by 36 local authorities in the South West.

The survey which takes in the greater South West region, saw Bristol come out on top with 7,773 fly tipping offences.

A spokesperson for Cornwall Council said: "There is no excuse for fly-tipping - the Council provides a range of services that enable people to properly dispose of their waste including kerbside collections as well as Household Waste Recycling Centres where people can take their waste free of charge."

John Philips, GMB Regional Secretary, said "Not only is fly-tipping illegal but it is damaging to the environment and according to the Environment Agency it costs £100-150m per annum to clean up.

"Local authorities need to target fly-tipping to improve their policing of the problem - out of 820,000 incidents last year there were only 2,500 prosecutions throughout England and Wales."