FLY-TIPPING is unsightly, expensive - and could be life-threatening.

That's what Long Bredy residents Gillian and Rob Milne found when they tried to get out of their home last week and found their drive completely blocked by dumped waste - including a garden shed.

After repeated calls to the Dorset Waste Partnership they were told it was their responsibility to get rid of it because it was on private land.

Mrs Milne said: "We were told if we moved it off our drive they'd prosecute us. I have an elderly father-in-law who hasn't been well, what would have happened if he needed an ambulance? That's extreme but it could happen.

"As it happens we are practical people and Rob was able to move the garden shed and we'll burn it."

They couldn't do that with the rest - food waste, bottles, children's toys, plastic tubs, bags and carpet.

"It is a load of bother and money to get rid of it. You are not allowed to go to the tip with a trailer. How do you get rid of it?

"We were made to feel like criminals.

"Just recently there was a whole load of garden waste dumped on Chilcombe Hill blocking the road. It seems like on every corner of little narrow roads there's something. Quite frankly it's horrid to see."

This latest incident comes as Dorset Waste Partnership announced it will be employing a private company to help tackle the problem.

The year-long trial will entail an external company providing uniformed, trained officers to issue fines for littering, fly-tipping and businesses which fail to prove they are disposing of their waste responsibly.

A partnership spokesman said: "These measures will allow the DWP to ramp up its enforcement efforts at no extra cost to the taxpayer.

Although it has adopted legislation that introduces Fixed Penalty Notices for fly-tipping, which can mean a £400 fine for each incident none have been issued so far and only one person has been successfully prosecuted.

Flytipping costs Dorset councils around £110,000 a year and since 2013 in west Dorset the figure is £61,266.

There are no collated figures for the number of incidents reported to the waste partnership.

Flycapture, a government organisation, estimated the cost of clearance and disposal of fly-tipped waste to local authorities in England was more than £74 million and that was in 2007.

In 2012/13 there were 711,000 incidents of fly-tipping with a case occurring every 44 seconds.

The Woodland Trust’s annual rubbish clearance costs have increased by 264 per cent since 2010 and figures show 2016 has been its worst year on record with a bill totalling more than a quarter of a million pounds.

Since 2010 the total cost of litter clearance has risen to £1.2m.

This year the trust took just one fly tipper to court who was ordered to pay £200 compensation - the only known instance where a fly tipper could be tracked down in the 44 year history of the trust.

West Dorset NFU secretary Jennie Greenwood said fly tipping effects two thirds of farmers nationally but not many incidents were reported to the branch as farmers tended to deal with incidents themselves.

She said: "Around here farmers are quite practical. We rarely get it reported to us.

"The cost of clearing up is left to the landowner and that's a great shame. You can't take it to the tip and they often end up paying to have it taken away."

West Dorset National Trust warden Rob Rhodes said although nationally the problem is rising locally incidents have reduced this year.

It usually costs the trust locally £2,000 a year, he said.