Grot Spot Britain: Industrial scale of illegal fly-tipping revealed as almost 1,000 hot-spots identified

Scroll down to see how many large-scale tipping sites were closed down in your area in 2016.

ITV News has been given details of almost a thousand sites of large-scale illegal dumping.

It's yet another sign that our communities are not just being plagued by fly-tippers - but also by criminal gangs dumping on a commercial basis.

In an exclusive interview for ITV News, the chief of Britain's Environment Agency says the war against this anti-social crime is being slowly won.

That will anger many people whose neighbourhoods have been turned into illicit dumps and who see little sign of victory against the culprits.

Our cameras went out to film a dawn raid on suspects in Staffordshire.

It was part of an investigation into 17 waste sites scattered around the country (including Lancashire, Humberside, Merseyside and Birmingham), where a massive 25 tonnes of illegal waste (enough to fill 5 Olympic-sized swimming pools) has been dumped.

At the site of avast illegal dump in Warrington, we met with Sir James Bevan, Chief of the Environment Agency.

He told us: "The new war is on the waste criminals and that is a war we are slowly winning. We are determined to prosecute and prevail."

An estimated 300 tonnes of rubbish has been illegally dumped at this site. Credit: ITV News

Despite concerns that organised gangs see this as easy money, the man at the top of the organisation fighting them says: "The courts are imposing increasingly heavy fines and increasingly long prison sentences - ultimately this is a crime that will not pay".

However, today I visited an area close to a park in East London, where 300 tonnes of rubbish has been dumped.

The gigantic pile of fly-tipping stretches 70 meters and its estimated to be around 11 lorry loads.

I met a pupil from the nearby school, Sameria Ahmed. She is less convinced that the war on illegal waste is being won.

It will cost an estimated £60,000 to clear this site of illegally dumped rubbish in east London. Credit: ITV News

She told me: "It's really stupid you have to pay to get rid of rubbish you shouldn't leave it in a school in front of kids... it's quite dangerous because there can be diseases in this rubbish."

As evidence of all that it is doing, the Environment Agency has given me details of 989 large scale tipping sites it closed down last year.

You can see below where your region falls in this league table.

Officials are justified in saying the list displays their successes - but it also highlights the daunting scale of the illegal tips that blight Britain.

Number of large-scale tipping sites closed down in 2016, by region:

  • Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire 15

  • Cumbria and Lancashire 43

  • Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire 44

  • Devon and Cornwall 55

  • Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk 68

  • Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire 63

  • Herts & North London 68

  • Kent and South London 66

  • Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire 34

  • Northumberland, Durham and Tees 58

  • Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire 54

  • Solent and South Downs 66

  • Staffordshire, Warwickshire and West Midlands 56

  • Wessex 107

  • West Thames 78

  • Yorkshire 114