MORE and more areas of our beautiful countryside are being defaced by the dumping of rubbish.

It's amazing how many laybys in beauty spots, entrances to fields and even remote car parks with views are littered with piles of scrap, rubble and even bags of rubbish that can only have been dumped by lorries or large vans.

A lot of these places are so out-of-the-way that you are left thinking the tippers have gone to more trouble to commit their illegal act than they would have done driving to their nearest council waste centre.

With this backcloth it's worrying to hear a warning that moves by Blackburn with Darwen Council could lead to even more illegal fly-tipping.

Apparently so many businesses are using vans to take rubbish to the council's household recycling centres in Blackburn and Darwen rather than the commercial waste centre at Roman Road that the local authority is planning to ban them.

And the reason that they are not using the commercial centre is because if they did they would be charged. This is because sifting through commercial waste takes more time and costs more. The council also has to pay landfill tax imposed by the government.

By taking their rubbish to household centres businesses can evade the costs - and effectively pass them on to the council tax payer.

Coun Paul Browne opposes the idea of a ban on vans at the household centres because he fears it will lead to even more fly tipping.

This is a defeatist argument because it is giving in to people who would commit illegal acts and expect others to meet the costs of running their business.

The authority should invest in ensuring that fly tippers are tracked down and severely punished.

At the same time they should launch a campaign to harden attitudes and encourage people to ring and report any carrying out something that is socially totally unacceptable.