More than 3,000 cases of fly-tipping were reported to Kirklees Council last year.

But the problems in tracking those responsible was highlighted with the low number of penalties.

Council chiefs tasked with finding those responsible handed out 10 fixed penalty tickets of £50, and took three people to court.

Calderdale Council have had four successful court cases with a further four pending and have given six cautions.

A new report from the Government has highlighted the huge problems faced by councils all over the UK in dealing with flytipping and dumped rubbish.

One of the worst-hit areas was Birmingham where more than 14,000 incidents were reported.

There, council officers were able to take action in only 14 cases.

The problem was equally as bad in Liverpool where not a single person was fined or prosecuted even though 3,633 investigations were launched.

Kirklees Council handled 3,035 complaints and spent £89,694 on investigating them between May 2012 and April 2013.

In Calderdale, the council spent £40,722 investigating their 1,837 complaints.

Wakefield had the highest number of complaints in West Yorkshire with 6,276 complaints and also the highest number of penalty tickets (26) and prosecutions (21).

In Leeds, there were 16 penalty tickets and 15 prosecutions after 2,805 complaints.

A Kirklees spokesman said: “Flytipping is an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and if caught the perpetrators face a fine up to £50,000 and/or a six month custodial sentence via the courts.

“People need to report incidents to enable the council to deal effectively with this. Call 01484 414700 and give all the details you can including time, place and any information that will help identify who is responsible such as make and model of vehicle, or a description of those involved and what you saw being dumped.

“Do not remove any evidence as the investigating officer will be looking at the dumped material and will recover everything they can.”

Mark Thompson, Calderdale Council’s head of housing and environment, said: “This year there have been four successful cases of prosecutions for fly-tipping, plus another four more are pending. We have also issued six cautions.

“Fly-tipping is a very serious criminal offence. We will not hesitate to prosecute fly-tippers but we need clear evidence to do so. We urge people to let us know if they witness fly-tipping – they can report it online using the form on www.calderdale.gov.uk , or they can contact the Council's contact centre confidentially on customerfirst@calderdale.gov.uk or 0845 245 7000 / 0845 245 6000.”

People are asked to give as much information as possible about what and/or who they have seen.