A NEW taskforce has been set up to tackle flytipping around North Yorkshire.

Operation Eyeball aims to protect rural parts of North Yorkshire and Selby, and is a partnership between landowners, district and unitary councils, North Yorkshire County Council, Network Rail, the NFU and the Environment Agency.

The scheme will allow the organisations to share intelligence and information to take on the crime, with City of York Council, Ryedale District Council, Richmondshire District Council, Hambleton District Council, Harrogate District Council, Craven District Council, Scarborough Borough Council and Selby District Council all given enforcement powers, while police will also gather and share information about hotspots, suspicious vehicles and waste carriers.

Superintendent Paula Booth said: "Fly-tipping is a selfish crime that blights local environments and spoils people’s enjoyment of our towns and countryside. It is a source of pollution, a potential danger to public health and a hazard to wildlife. It also undermines legitimate waste businesses who operate within the law.

"By working together, we can tackle this issue. We also need help from the public – if you find or witness fly-tipping, wherever it is, record as many details about the incident and the waste as you can, and report it to your local authority or via the gov.uk website. This will help the authorities take action against those responsible and stop them fly-tipping in the future."

Julia Mulligan, Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire, said Operation Eyeball was "a wide ranging operation with a clear aim – to reduce fly tipping in North Yorkshire".

She said: "By bringing together organisations who are on the front line of the problem and have to deal with its consequences, we are taking an important first step to tackle it. I welcome the approach being taken by councils and would encourage anyone having to deal with fly tipping to get in touch with them."