Column: Colchester farmer Peter Fairs reflects on the growing, infuriating issue of flytipping

IT is interesting to note the number of comments and letters now appearing in the Gazette, Essex County Standard and elsewhere about the appalling quantities of litter being dumped along roadsides such as the A12 and on public land.

Councils are counting the costs of 2,700 reported incidents daily or around £50 million annually.

There is so much of it that I can’t help wondering if some of the offenders are people who would normally consider themselves “environmentalists” but they don’t like rubbish in their car.

They trust their luck and chuck their muck.

Some of the worst offenders seem to be people who have purchased fast food and get rid of the packaging and half-eaten burgers in our farm entrance.

The encouraging signs are that more public-spirited people are picking litter locally and authorities are putting up more signs to discourage flytipping.

A recent BBC Panorama also highlighted the problem.

Readers of this column will know that although I do try to be positive, I have a particular whinge about anti-farmer or landowner discrimination.

Peter Fairs

Peter Fairs

Farmers are the only section of society not allowed to cut their hedges in August, the only section of society subject to most pesticide usage laws, the only section of society who can grow a crop organically but only use that label if they have abided by certain other criteria.

I now add to that list “the only section of society where the VICTIMS have a legal responsibility for the crime”.

I refer, of course, to flytipping, which is now taking place on an industrial scale on private land.

The £50m cost referred to above does not include this type of rubbish disposal.

Field gateways are regularly used to get rid of old settees or mattresses.

Rogue builders and home improvement enthusiasts find it cheaper to get rid of bricks and paint pots on farm tracks.

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Worse still are the rogue waste transfer operators who are licensed to collect rubbish from homes or businesses and they then tip whole lorryloads wherever they can find a secluded spot.

The outrageous point is that it immediately becomes the landowners responsibility to take it to a proper disposal site and if he/she does not, then they are criminally responsible.

How can this be right? This waste often contains noxious materials such as asbestos which is very expensive to remove and the cost to private landowners must be at least as much as the £50m cost that councils are incurring.

Even dumping relatively innocuous garden waste can inadvertently cost a farmer.

A case reported last week involving some rhododendron clippings resulted in the death of nine pregnant sheep which happened to eat them.

It is outrageous that the average fine for offenders caught flytipping is £400 and the average cost for the farmer to dispose of it is £800.

Yes, I’m whingeing, but wouldn’t you?