A HAMPSHIRE politician has claimed that fly-tippers should be garrotted with their own intestines.

Veteran Conservative Sir Desmond Swayne made the tongue-in-cheek suggestion during a parliamentary debate about the issue of waste being dumped illegally in the countryside.

Sir Desmond told environment secretary Theresa Villiers: “The New Forest is being desecrated by people fly-tipping.

“Will my right honourable friend have a word with her colleagues in the Ministry of Justice to ensure we are more robust with respect to punishments – perhaps garrotting perpetrators with their own intestines?”

Mrs Villiers said she hoped the courts would take fly-tipping “seriously” but told Sir Desmond: “I’m not sure I could go quite that far.”

His comments come amid growing concern over the unauthorised dumping of waste.

As reported, the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has highlighted the “huge emotional and financial” effect on victims.

CLA bosses spoke out after the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) revealed that councils in England have dealt with more than one million fly-tipping incidents on public land in the past year - an increase of eight per cent.

CLA South East represents thousands of farmers, landowners and rural businesses in Hampshire and other counties.

Commenting on the latest figures its regional director, Michael Valenzia, said: “These statistics do not fully reflect the reality of the situation as many fly-tipping incidents take place on privately-owned land.

“They also don’t show the huge emotional and financial cost of this crime.

“Our members are all too tired of not only cleaning up other people’s rubbish but paying for the privilege of doing so. It costs an average of £1,000 to clean up each incident.”

Sir Swayne was first elected MP for New Forest West in 1997 and is bidding to retain his seat at the General Election on December 12.

Shortly after he raised the issue of fly-tipping in the Forest a huge pile of waste was dumped near St Mary the Virgin Church in Bransgore.

It also comes after the county council came under fire for imposing charges for disposing of certain types of DIY waste at its centres across the county, including those near Lymington, Ringwood and Marchwood.

Liberal Democrats claim Conservative-controlled authority policy would encourage fly-tipping.

But Tory councillors say the levy will reduce the risk of centres closing as the council seeks to implement £80m of cuts by next April.