THE Government's plans to impose Euro-style taxes for the collection of household rubbish, on top of council tax, have been condemned by Anne Marie Morris, who warned it would lead to a "massive surge" in fly-tipping.

Ms Morris, the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Newton Abbot, voiced her concerns following the end of Whitehall's 'consultation' period over the new tax scheme.

Research by the Countryside Alliance has found that black bags full of domestic rubbish already account for 63 per cent of all fly-tipping; yet just one in every 100 fly-tippers is actually prosecuted.

Bin taxes have already been introduced in the Republic of Ireland where they have caused a surge in fly-tipping; families who do not or cannot pay the bin taxes have their rubbish collections stopped.

The Keep Britain Tidy campaign has warned that bin taxes will lead to "people simply dumping their garbage illegally in a bid to avoid paying up".

Anne Marie Morris said: "Under Labour, fly-tipping has become endemic. Yet Whitehall plans for new taxes on family homes will make it even worse. We all want to increase the level of recycling, but bin taxes will harm the local environment by leading to a surge in illegal dumping and backyard burning.

"Whether they can't pay or won't pay, I fear many irresponsible people will dump instead. And no-one believes that council taxes would fall if bin taxes were introduced. Bin taxes aren't a green tax - they're yet another stealth tax from Gordon Brown by another name.

"This tax cannot be allowed for the good reason that whilst it takes £1.4 million pound to deal with our rubbish annually it will cost far more to police a constituency such as ours in order to identify and fine those who will dump more of their rubbish on our doorstep."