COUNCIL tax payers in Birmingham have had to fork out more than £2 million in the last two years to tackle fly-tipping across the city.

The city council dealt with more than 47,000 incidents in that period where it had to clean up tyres, building waste, furniture and old vehicles dumped on public land.

Across the West Midlands region fly-tipping is estimated to cost tax payers £6 million a year. Now, with drain on the public purse becoming so huge, city officials have joined forces with neighbouring councils and the Environment Agency to launch a new war on those responsible.

The West Midlands Environmental Crime Liaison Group will bring together expertise from across the region in a bid to crackdown on fly tipping.

But today, one Birmingham councillor said she had noticed no real improvement in the past two years and her ward is still blighted by fly tipping.

Salma Yaqoob (Respect, Sparkbrook) said money would have been better spent having an Environmental Warden for each ward across the city.

That used to happened in Birmingham, but now wardens have to be shared across constituencies.

“My constituents are still say there are lots of issues with fly tipping,” said Coun Yaqoob. “It is a real blight on the area.

“Environmental Wardens were the real answer as they built relationships with people and things started to change.

“I know people came from across the city to dump their rubbish in Sparkbrook, which does not help.

“People in this area have not seen any real change in the past two years, despite the £2 million that’s been spent by the council and things must change.”

New figures released by the Environment Agency show in 2007 and 2008, Birmingham City Council tackled 47,258 incidents of fly tipping and spent £2,390,681 on clean-ups.