BRADFORD is seeing a rise in "businesses" advertising waste removal services on Facebook, only to then dump the rubbish yards from the homes of their customers.

The issue was raised during a discussion on fly tipping in the Bradford District, where councillors said the extent of the problem in some parts of Bradford was "astonishing."

And one member of the Council's Regeneration and Environment Scrutiny Committee, which met on Tuesday evening, said one way to tackle the problem was to "utterly humiliate" those who were caught in the act of fly tipping.

A recent report into fly tipping in the district revealed that Bradford had the highest rates in Yorkshire, with 22.8 incidents of fly tipping for every 1,000 residents.

Amjad Ishaq, environmental services co-ordinator, told the committee that some people had turned fly tipping into a business. He said: "We are seeing people advertise on Facebook to remove people's waste for cheap. You get people handing their waste over to them, only to find it has been fly tipped round the corner.

"In this instance it is the household that has technically committed the offence. Households are most often the victims of this scam, so we tend to just offer a caution, but we can hand out fixed penalty notices."

He told the meeting that there were currently two prosecutions for fly tipping pending with one alleged fly tipper due to appear at crown court.

He also said the coming months would likely see a number of other fly tippers appear in court.

He added: "Unfortunately the fines given out by the court don't always reflect the hard work out team puts in to stop fly tipping.

Stuart Russo, senior technical officer, described fly tipping as "A national problem that no-one has any answer to."

Councillor David Heseltine (Cons, Bingley) said: "This behaviour starts at school, so we need to educate people. If little Tarquin and Tabitha throw their rubbish on the floor before they go back to school maybe we should fine them. If they can't pay the fine themselves then maybe Mummy and Daddy should pay it."

Councillor Ralph Berry (Lab, Wibsey) said: "We need some big sentences. We need to create a sense of utter humiliation for the perpetrators who fly tip, because some communities are having their lives made a misery by the people who do this."

Mr Russo said identifying perpetrators was key to stopping fly tippers. He added: "Some Councils adopt this idea of name and shame, but this can lead to claims of us being a 'nanny state.'

"People always get very passionate about fly tipping, but unless they are willing to give a statement to the council saying 'I saw this person doing this at this time' there isn't much we can do. People have to be willing to come forward."

He said the Council's press office would be issuing regular updates on successful court cases, and efforts to tackle the issue.

A report presented to the committee showed that fly-tipping hotspots included Bowling and Barkerend, where 617 fly tipping incidents were reported last year, and Little Horton, where 595 incidents were reported.

Chair Councillor Rizwana Jamil represents Bowling and Barkerend, and said the figures were "astonishing" for her ward and other areas.

When asked if the rise in fly tipping could be linked to waste policies, such as charging for bulk collections and charges for businesses to dump at tips, Mr Russo said "some problems" might be related. But he added changing back to a free for all would likely cost taxpayers an extra £4 million - massively overshadowing the amount that would be saved on cleaning fly tipping.

Councillor Brendan Stubbs, (Lib Dem, Eccleshill) said: "Maybe that is a price worth paying when you think of fly tipping as a reputational issue."

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Portfolio Holder for Environment, Sport and Culture, replied: "It is about balance. Ultimately we are trying to change people's behaviour. If people are willing to throw their rubbing out, then that needs to change.

"We don't want to have to take enforcement actions against people, but we wouldn't have to if they were willing to change their behaviour."