Councils reported more than a million cases of fly-tipping last year, as illegal waste dumping rose for the fourth year in a row.

Town halls across England recorded 1,002,154 incidents of fly-tipping in 2016/2017, up 7% on the previous year, statistics show.

Fly-tipping ranged from dumping bags of household waste, fridges and other white goods to construction rubble, tyres, asbestos and even dead animals.

Around two thirds (67%) of cases involved household rubbish, the Environment Department figures reveal.

And the stats do not include the majority of incidents of waste dumped on private land.

Clearing up fly-tipped waste cost councils nearly £57.7million last year, while they carried out 474,000 enforcement actions, costing around £16 million.

The worst-hit local authorities were big cities such as Manchester and Liverpool, and London boroughs.

The latest figures come after the Government gave councils new powers to issue “on-the-spot” fixed penalty notices of £150 to £400 for small-scale fly-tipping in May 2016.

Town halls issued 56,000 fixed penalty notices for fly-tipping, which also include fines for littering, duty of care and anti-social behaviour, in 2016/2017 - an increase of 56% on the previous year.

Prosecutions plunged by a quarter, down from 2,135 in 2015/2016 to 1,602 last year.

The most common place for fly-tipping to take place was on roads, and the most common amount of rubbish dumped was equivalent to a “small van-load”, with a third of cases falling into that category, followed by the equivalent of a car boot-full.

The Mirror told earlier this month how 76% of English councils now only pick up bin bags once a fortnight, while six councils had made the move to only collecting rubbish once every three weeks.

Keep Britain Tidy chief executive Allison Ogden-Newton said: “Enough is enough. It is time to give councils the resources they need to tackle this problem head-on, using some of the proceeds of the landfill tax.

“We also need the people of Britain to stop treating our country like one giant tip, to take responsibility for their unwanted stuff and make sure that, if they give their waste to someone else to dispose of, they are going to dispose of it legally.”

Country Land and Business Association president Ross Murray warned “fly-tipping is just getting worse and worse”.

He said: “It is a national disgrace. Prosecutions for this crime are ludicrously low, and have decreased by a further 25%.

“It is high time that Government took a much more active role in tackling this blight on the countryside.”

Asked if Theresa May would like to see more weekly bin collections, a No 10 spokesman said: “Fly-tipping is never acceptable no matter what the circumstances and councils have a full range of tools at their disposal to tackle this issue.

“We have been very clear that we support frequent and comprehensive bin collections, it’s up to councils to decide on the litter collection strategy that works for their residents, and councils need to make sure collections are easy to use and help the environment.”

A spokesman for the Environment Department said: “Fly-tipping is an unacceptable blight on our landscape, which is why we have cracked down on offenders by strengthening sentencing guidelines and giving councils the powers to hand out on-the-spot fines to fly-tippers.

“We have made it easier for vehicles suspected of being used for fly-tipping to be stopped, searched and seized and will continue to work with local partners to stop this inexcusable crime.”