BRADFORD Council has confirmed it will be using new powers which allow authorities to hit fly-tippers with fixed penalties of up to £400.

A law coming into force next month will mean authorities across England can fine people between £150 and £400 for fly-tipping on either public or private land.

But councillors are divided about how effective the new powers will be in halting the scourge of illegal dumping.

Figures released to the Telegraph & Argus under the Freedom of Information Act show Bradford Council gets more than 7,000 reports of fly-tipping each year.

But the number of prosecutions is comparatively low, at 29 in 2014-15 and just seven in the first 10 months of 2015-16.

And the costs of bringing these court cases can be high. The authority had court costs of £11,918 in 2014-15 and the bill for 2015-16 so far stands at £3,227.

Now the new rules, brought in by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) aim to make it easier for councils to punish those caught illegally dumping waste.

Ian Day, Bradford Council's assistant director for neighbourhoods and customer services, said the authority did its best to find the evidence to prosecute criminal fly-tippers, but they would now look to use the new fines too.

He said: "If rubbish is tipped on council land we clean it up as soon as possible and we try to ensure private land-owners do the same.

"The new powers to impose fixed penalty fines on fly-tippers come into force in May and we will look to use them when we can."

Councillor Mike Ellis (Con, Bingley Rural), who serves on the general council of the Chartered Institute of Waste Managers, welcomed the new powers.

He said crucially, it would mean the council could act when fly-tippers target private land.

He said: "It is an absolute blot on the landscape. You can travel on the train into Bradford, into either station, and it is unbelievable, the amount of waste.

"There are sofas, toilets, old baths, all sorts."

But Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, Liberal Democrat leader, said while the fixed penalty notices would be "another tool in the armoury", she doubted they would solve the problem, saying similar powers to fine litterbugs had proved ineffective.

She said the council should instead educate householders about their responsibilities to make sure their waste was properly disposed of, provide a list of council-approved waste removal firms and change its bulky waste collection rules so people could call the council to collect old kitchens and bathrooms.

Councillor Arshad Hussain, executive member for neighbourhoods and community safety at the Labour-led authority, said: "Fly tipping is a blight making our neighbourhoods look unsightly.

"The council works hard to keep its land clear by removing rubbish that has been fly tipped.

"Our wardens and Environmental Enforcement team work hard to find out who has illegally dumped rubbish and take action when possible.

"The vast majority of people take pride in their local area and I would encourage anyone seeing this taking place to report it to the council so that we can tackle this problem together."