More than 100,000 fly-tipping incidents in South East in one year: Farmers speak of huge impact

Josh Dugdale, of the Wasing Estate in Berkshire, has suffered a catalogue of fly-tipping, and has kept a register of more than 50 separate incidents over the last few years, calling it a “nightmare”. Items dumped include fridges, beds, wardrobes, mattresses, heaters, asbestos and children’s play equipment.

Mr Dugdale said: “Fly-tipping is a constant issue for us which has taken up hours of precious time over many years. It’s a symptom of a malaise of disconnection to the countryside, and is very frustrating to those of us who live in and care about our neighbourhood. Why should we have to clear up someone else’s mess? It’s extraordinary behaviour that they feel they need to go to the effort of driving to dump it in our backyard. It’s totally unacceptable.

“Anyone caught fly-tipping should automatically be fined and given long hours of community service clearing up rubbish from our beautiful roadside verges or, worse, rivers. It’s the only way to show people that littering is an activity devoid of any semblance of mature civilised behaviour. The government needs to be stronger in showing how important this issue is, that it supports responsible mature behaviour but has no truck with the idiots that leave their rubbish for us to clear up.”

Sam Biles, who farms in Calbourne, Isle of Wight, has seen numerous items dumped in the village. He said: “The problem of fly-tipping seems to be getting worse. We are in the Island’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and it is such a shame when people dump their rubbish in our beautiful countryside rather than take it to appropriate disposal facilities.

“In the last year I have seen tyres, asbestos, household rubbish and builders’ waste dumped, some of which is not only an eyesore but also has environmental and health implications. At the end of the day, someone has to spend time and money removing this waste. We as local people need to be vigilant and report all instances of fly-tipping to the police and council.”

Nicholas Verney, of the Claydon Estate near Buckingham, has suffered several incidents of fly-tipping, with items such as black bags of garden waste, syringes, tyres, bags of narcotics and even a plastic baby bath dumped in gateways, lay-bys and ditches.

He said: “While the incidents we’ve suffered are smaller in scale than some, they are increasing in regularity. Our local authority has to date been very helpful in collecting and disposing of waste, but doing so puts a burden on the authority at a time when we all know that budgets are being stretched further and further.

“Fly-tipped waste is also damaging to nature and potentially dangerous to local people as it is often dumped in areas frequented by dog walkers and families, and we have had incidences of bags of narcotics, syringes and other hazardous materials dumped in these locations. Fly-tipping is selfish, irresponsible, dangerous and should be stopped.”

Sue Green, of the Montreal Estate near Sevenoaks, said: “It is a shame that fly-tipping is now almost accepted. We all need to work hard to prevent it and prosecute those who offend.

“I use the wonderful Country Eye app to report these incidences, and for us it works very efficiently and the local council does respond.”

Simon Porter, who farms in Crondall, Hampshire, has experienced a series of fly-tipping incidents recently. He said: “In the last two weeks we have had builders’ rubbish tipped in a lay-by and at a road junction, mainly paving slabs, concrete and empty filler tubes, which the council did clear quite promptly. Last week we had three black bin liners filled with rubbish dumped on a woodland edge.

“We also had a tipper deposit its whole load of rubbish in the middle of the road at 10pm one night. The rubbish was from a garage or garden shed clearance. Fortunately, our cameras recorded the tipper passing and then returning two minutes later. Details have been given to both Hampshire County Council and the police.”

Liz Mouland, who farms in the Sittingbourne area, regularly reports fly-tipping incidents and even caught one culprit in the act, but not before dumping a tipper load of rubbish on her land. She said: “We examined our gate and discovered he had put their own padlock onto our chain which was very cunning, and then as we drove around we found the pile of rubbish.

“We feel we were ‘lucky’ to have found this man when and where we did, otherwise we could have had multiple lorry loads dumped that day.

“We have now barricaded that gateway with concrete slabs, which so far has been effective but in terms of farming use it is inconvenient.”

For more information about the CLA and its work, visit https://www.cla.org.uk/in-your-area/south-east/ and follow @CLASouthEast on Twitter.