MEON VAlley businessman Martin Montague's battle against fly-tippers will be seen on BBC television on Tuesday.

Presenter Angela Rippon travelled down to Bishop's Waltham to interview Martin about his campaign against the scourge of fly-tipping for the programme Rip Off Britain.

Martin is founder of the free ClearWaste.com app and website which lets people report illegal dumping anywhere in the UK.

He said: "It's great that the BBC has decided to highlight the problem of fly-tipping and devote a whole episode of Rip Off Britain to the subject. Angela Rippon was lovely and was very keen to discover what we are doing to combat fly-tippers.

"Like most people, she hates fly-tipping and I think she and the production team were shocked by the amount of illegally dumped waste there is around this area and all over the country.

"We have seen a big increase in fly-tipping since lockdown began - our figures suggest that the number of incidents of fly-tipping has pretty much doubled. Many rubbish tips can only be visited during pre-booked slots and too many people risk fines by using unlicensed traders who often then fly-tip stuff.

"Local authorities are struggling to keep up with it. We need higher fines, the vehicles of offenders crushed and prison terms for persistent waste criminals.

"The Meon Valley continues to be very badly hit by fly-tippers – fly-tippers just don't care about the damage they do to the countryside."

Martin is determined to play his part in stopping fly-tippers. "I'll do anything I can to stop it, even if that means staking out grotspots to catch fly-tippers in the act," he says.

"We've got every bit of kit we need from night vision goggles to cameras so my message to fly-tippers is: We're coming to get you. We give any evidence we gather to the authorities so they catch prosecute the perpetrators.

"Fly-tipping is really bad for the environment and can be fatal to wildlife and it also costs taxpayers thousands and thousands of pounds to clean-up, money that could be better spent on things like schools or care for the elderly.

"My aim with the ClearWaste.com app and website is to make it really easy for people to report fly-tipping and together we can reverse the scourge of fly-tipping which affects everyone, whether you live in a town or a city or in the countryside.

"It came about because I was just absolutely sick to death of seeing fly-tipping everywhere," says Martin. "I really hate fly-tipping and the damage it does to our environment, not to mention the cost of cleaning it up."

The simple-to-use app and website links to every local authority in the country and will help to combat flytipping. It gives councils the location of the rubbish along with details and photographs and, over time, the mapping technology should be able to discover patterns in fly-tipping in order to catch criminals.

A unique price comparison section of the app and website now allows consumers to find licenced waste companies to get rid of junk at reasonable prices, and help them avoid being ripped off by rogue traders who take their cash and then fly-tip the rubbish, leaving the householder at risk of prosecution.

The episode of Rip Off Britain featuring Martin will air on BBC One on Tuesday at 9.15am and will be available afterwards on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000n9nv