Liverpool City Council has attributed the city's high number of fly-tipping incidents to the thorough way in which it monitors the problem.

New figures show fly-tipping incidents increased between April 2006 and March 2007, with nearly half of all cases reported from Liverpool City Council. However, Liverpool says its figure is so high because, unlike other councils, it includes single bin bags which have been left out on the wrong day for bin collection.

‘We believe that we have been reporting the fly-tipping problem correctly. If people put out their rubbish on the wrong day it becomes fly-tipping, because the bags will be disturbed and will attract rodents,' a spokesman said.

‘If we did not regard this as fly-tipping our figures would be reduced by at least more than half a million incidents.

‘However, it is clear that other authorities have not been doing this and we have agreed with DEFRA that in future this type of activity will not be included in our figures.'

Minister for waste, Joan Ruddock, called on all councils to do more to tackle the problem. ‘Despite some good progress over the past year – including more reporting and more enforcement – there is far too much fly-tipping blighting our streets and countryside,' she said. ‘It's not acceptable, councils must do more to tackle it.'