Dumped rubbish cost Oxfordshire taxpayers more than £185,000 last year to clear up, new figures reveal.

Litter on the verge of the A34, close to the Botley interchange at OxfordOxfordshire's local councils were forced to spend more than £500 a day clearing up the debris unloaded on roads, fields, canal banks and other open spaces.

The statistics were published by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in a written answer to the House of Commons.

The size of the problem has been exposed by a new national database, which has been recording rubbish dumping, otherwise known as fly-tipping, incidents for more than a year.

The Flycapture operation has revealed that rubbish is illegally dumped somewhere in England every 35 seconds, costing local authorities an estimated average of £100 a minute to clear up.

The district councils in Cherwell, West and South Oxfordshire, the Vale of White Horse and Oxford City Council are faced with gathering up the mess, and the county with the task of disposing of it.

Mark Leonard, Oxfordshire's waste enforcement officer, said it was difficult to say whether illegal fly-tipping was on the increase as the Flycapture statistics had only been available for just over a year.

But he added: "There's anecdotal evidence that it's getting worse in two particular categories -- the lazy householder who can't be bothered to go to the local waste disposal centre, and those who dump used tyres, rather than pay the county fee of £1.25p per tyre."

Clean-up operations are carried out as quickly as possible to prevent an environmental hazard as well as attracting more illegal dumpers.

Defra's figures for Oxfordshire show that in the year up to the end of March, Oxford City council faced the biggest bill, spending £98,489 in dealing with 1,865 incidents. The district statistics were as follows:

Cherwell: 665 incidents -- clean-up bill £36,315

South Oxfordshire: 690 incidents -- clean-up bill £33,860

Vale of White Horse: 348 incidents -- clean up bill £16,688

West Oxfordshire: 123 incidents -- clean-up bill £8,909.

Councils can use powers under the Antisocial Behaviour Act to prosecute anyone caught dumping rubbish in public.

Fly-tippers risk a fine of £5,000 the first time they are caught, which rises to a maximum £50,000 if they are convicted again.