Fury over ‘worst fly-tipping case’

9:51am Wednesday 14th May 2008

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FLY-TIPPING yobs have been slammed by villagers, after an enormous mountain of rubbish was dumped near York.

The offenders left a vast mound of rubble and other waste in a rural lane running west from Poppleton, blocking road access for at least one farmer.

Police and the Environment Agency are investigating the incident, which sparked fury and dismay from locals.

The incident occurred just a few feet inside the Harrogate Borough Council area, and a spokeswoman today said it was the worst case of fly-tipping they had ever seen in the district.

Peter Stevenson, operations team leader for the Environment Agency, said: "Fly-tipping on this scale is not only a blight on the landscape but a very serious criminal offence.

"When dumping is big, bad or nasty the Environment Agency is often asked by local authorities to step in and take the lead on investigating the crime.

"Our officers will search through the waste for any evidence that may lead us to the source of the material.

"They are very experienced in tracing different types of waste back to the owner. We will then try to determine how the waste arrived at the location.

"Large-scale fly-tipping such as this has not been a major problem in the Poppleton area in recent years, so we hope this is just a one-off.

"But businesses and the general public need to remember that the safe, legal disposal of waste is their responsibility and they can be fined, even if they have paid someone else to take it away."

But one local resident said this was not a one-off incident.

She said: "I think on one particular road going out of the village it's very bad. It's regular - probably every night. It's awful; terrible. I have a friend that lives off the lane, and sometimes it's dumped right in front of their gates and they cannot get out of the lane and their driveway."

York councillor Ian Gillies, himself a Poppleton resident, added: "It's a callous and disgusting act by people who do not care about the environment, residents or animals, and it's totally unacceptable."

The Harrogate council spokeswoman said the waste would be removed, but not until the Environment Agency had completed its investigation.

She said: "We are also not sure whether this is on private land or highway land. If it is the former then we have no responsibility to remove it, but given the sheer amount of stuff dumped we are going to take it away.

"If the culprits are found and a successful prosecution brought then we would expect our costs to be included in the costs as this is of course coming out of public money."

A North Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said they would assist environment officials in their investigations and any subsequent prosecution.

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What steps should be taken to tackle fly-tippers?