BRADFORD had the highest rates of reported fly tipping in Yorkshire last year, according to a new report into how the crime is hitting the district.

The annual report into fly tipping shows that reports are increasing in many areas of the district, with Bowling and Barkerend and Little Horton being particular hotspots.

And it reveals that the Council will soon be using high-tech, covert cameras that send images straight to enforcement officers' phones to try and catch fly tippers in the act.

The report, which will be discussed by Bradford Council's Regeneration and Environment Scrutiny Committee, says the number of fly tipping reports has been rising over the years, and that there have been "significant spikes" in some areas.

But it adds the actual amount of waste collected has remained steady over the years, and was actually down slightly from last year.

In 2017/18 there were 7,852 reports of fly tipping in Bradford, up from 7,112 in 2016/17.

Bradford is currently taking part in a "Land Audit Management Survey" - a pilot scheme that uses an app to record which roads show evidence of fly tipping.

Early data collected since April has found that 11 per cent of the randomly selected roads in the district had some type of fly tipping on them.

The worst performing area was the Bradford East constituency - 19.6 per cent of its streets showed some evidence of fly tipping.

However, the report says many of these streets only have "minor evidence of fly tipping" and just one per cent of streets showed significant evidence of fly tipping.

Comparing the rates in Bradford to the rest of Yorkshire, the report reveals that in the 2016/17 year there was 22.8 incidents of fly tipping for each 1,000 people in Bradford. The next highest rate of fly tipping in Yorkshire was in Leeds, where the figure was 21.01.

The Yorkshire district with the lowest level of fly tipping was Kirklees, which had just 0.64 incidents per 1,000.

The report says that some of the rise may be down to multiple people reporting the same fly tipping incidents. But it adds: "There has been growth in the number of fly tipping cases being reported to the Council, even after discounting population growth and duplication of some cases.

"There has also been growth in the total number of cases being reported to DEFRA by Bradford Council. However these two areas of growth have not seen any significant growth in the tonnage of waste collected from the streets by the service.

"This indicates that there are likely to be some other issues that cannot be understood at this point in time."

Last year the Council carried out 29 prosecutions or cautions, and issued 71 fixed penalty notices. Three vehicles used in fly tipping have been crushed.

A number of cameras have been placed in fly tipping hotspots, and the report says income from fines will allow the Council to buy more that will be placed at new locations in the district.

The Council have also purchased 15 "covert" cameras that can be placed in areas where CCTV cannot be installed, including rural locations, back streets and lay bys.

The report adds: "The team is currently working on a project in partnership with Vodaphone and Council ICT to trial a new generation surveillance camera that operates using solar panels and sends images and alerts over the mobile phone network.

"The benefit of this new camera is that it can be placed covertly at locations that do not require electricity supply therefore giving even greater flexibility for deployment. In additional all captured images are recorded remotely on a “Cloud” storage facility and the images can be accessed remotely. Also the camera alerts the (enforcement) team via text message whenever images are captured and these images can be streamed and viewed in real time.

"A location has been found to test the camera and if the trial is successful a business case will be submitted to purchase additional cameras or roll out at other locations."

The committee will discuss the issue in City Hall at 5.30pm on Tuesday.