Landowners unfairly penalised by fly tipping law

July 2008. Private landowners have to foot the bill for clearing rubbish that has been illegally dumped on their land, a cost that can run into thousands of pounds; as well as the inconvenience of removing it and the damage that is often done by the dumping in the first place.  

The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust says is calling for changes to the Environment Protection Act 1990 that would remove from landowners the responsibility for cleaning up other people's mess.

Dr Gary Mantle, Director of the Trust, says: "Landowners are a victim of crime several times over. First they suffer having the rubbish dumped on their land, which can cause damage in itself. Then they face prosecution if they don't clear it up, and on top of that they also have to pay for its removal. This is against anything that is fair and right in our society."

Organised crime
Whilst fly-tipping usually makes us think of individuals dumping a bag of rubbish from a car boot, there is plenty of evidence that it has become a major money spinner for organised crime. Only last month, two men were successfully prosecuted for dumping at least 14,000 tonnes of waste at 15 sites in London and Essex.

Campaign to Protect Rural England
According to the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) a new incident of fly-tipping occurs every 12 seconds at a cost to the public purse of around £72 a minute. The estimated cost of clearance of illegally dumped waste reported by local authorities in 2006/07 was £73.7 million.

Tyres dumped on Tony Keating's land. @ WWT

"I've had about 25 wheels thrown over the fence on to my land in the past nine months. They have bounced down the hill and smashed through another fence at the bottom, before rolling on through the wood and out into my fields to flatten my crops. The latest incident was a load of plastic pipes tossed over the fence - enough to fill a small trailer load.

"It takes so much time and effort to get it all cleaned up. It can take half a day for one of my men to clear it - time which has to be paid for. And then there is the cost of the fuel to drive the truck, and repairs to any damage caused. It can cost me several hundred pounds each time," says Tony.

"Salisbury District Council has done its best to help, but at the end of the day the law states that it is the landowner's responsibility - it has got to be changed," says Tony, who is the President of the Trust.

Wiltshire Litter Awareness campaign
The Trust is running the Wiltshire Litter Awareness campaign, which is funded by The Underwood Trust and is linked to the national Stop the Drop crusade launched by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) earlier this year. The CPRE is lobbying the Government for more leadership to tackle the problem of litter and fly tipping.

As part of its campaign, the Trust is encouraging people to take photos of any litter they come across and send it in to the Trust. It will then attempt to highlight the litter problem to the landowner and see if there is a way it can help resolve the issue. The worst examples will be published on its website http://www.wiltshirewildlife.org/.

Please send your photos to johns@wiltshirewildlife.org.uk. Please keep your photos to a maximum of 10Mb.