A report by Cllr Robin Bromham (LD), portfolio holder for neighbourhood operations, said Dacorum Borough Council is taking a "zero tolerance approach" to fly-tipping at the nine A41 lay-bys within Dacorum.

He said: "Drivers were pulling over to dump bags of waste in or around the litter bins, then the over-full bins would cause litter to blow across the carriageway, from where it is expensive to retrieve.

"Signage was installed to encourage drivers passing through Dacorum to take their rubbish with them, without the need for our citizens to pay for its collection and disposal. This is proving very effective.

"Along the A41, in the last two months since the changes [were] implemented, a considerable reduction of fly-tipping is being observed and data are being recorded to measure effectiveness."

Responding to a question from Cllr Edward Barradell (Con) at a full council meeting last month Cllr Bromham said fly-tipping on the A41 had brought "huge expense" for residents due to the costs of clearing the rubbish.

He said: "It costs about £20,000 to do a litter pick, and it costs about £20,000 to close the road.

"It was costing a lot of money also to empty the bins, which were being widely abused.

"You don't have to wait very long in those nine laybys to see cars pull up, probably from outside Dacorum, unload the car boot into those litter bins or around the litter bins, and drive off.

"That stuff then blows across the road and makes a terrible mess."

According to Cllr Bromham, evidence from removing bins at parks had shown that "somewhat counter-intuitively" the amount of litter declined after the changes.

He said: "You don't get stuff blown out of the bins and you don't get this general expectation that people have got to empty their pockets there and then when they have something to dispose of."