A FED-UP councillor says commercial fly-tippers are behind an epidemic of rubbish dumping at Christchurch beauty spots.

A recent incident saw a caravan stuffed full of old tyres dumped in Hurn Court Lane.

Cllr Margaret Phipps, ward councillor for Hurn and portfolio holder for ‘managing our environment’, described the abandoned caravan as an “unbelievable” act of fly-tipping.

Speaking to the Christchurch Times, she said there had been a spate of fly-tipping recently, with the worst-affected areas including Pig Shoot Lane, Hurn Court Lane, and a number of Forestry Commission car parks.

“We’re getting a lot more fly-tipping everywhere,” she said.

“People who walk their dogs regularly see where there is fly-tipping and inform me about it.

“However, we seem to be getting a spate of commercial fly-tipping - I don’t think it’s from member of the public.”

Hurn parish councillor Ian Evns joined neighbours in Pitthouse Lane in clearing rubble and roof tiles which had been dumped in the middle of the road, blocking them in.

A large mass of cannabis was found dumped in Hurn Court Lane in February, alongside other waste, while in nearby Pig Shoot Lane what looked like a skipful of household items had been left by the river.

And Christchurch Infant School sent out a letter last week after garden waste was fly-tipped onto the premises.

New measures to tackle the increase in fly-tipping will be reviewed from this month.

The Dorset Waste Partnership (DWP), which has two enforcement officers, will be reviewing its enforcement procedures so it can be more proactive in tackling the problem.

It is exploring the potential use of CCTV cameras in ‘hotspot locations’.

At a recent meeting of the DWP Joint Committee, Cllr Phipps asked how many fly-tipping incidents had been reported in the area in the last financial year, and how much it had cost to clear them up.

She was told there had been 2,349 fly-tips reported between April 2016 and the end of February 2017, with the total estimated clearance and disposal costs reaching £126,787.

Of these incidents, 233 were reported to the Christchurch depot and were cleared up at a cost of £11,611.

Cllr Phipps also asked officers if the number of fly-tipping incidents had increased since charges were introduced at household recycling centres in Dorset last September.