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An elderly farmer is now grappling with a staggering £40,000 expense after fly-tippers left behind 200 tons of waste on his property.
The farmer, who is in his 80s and prefers to stay unnamed, discovered the illegal dumping on his Hertfordshire field during the summer of last year.
Efforts to identify those responsible have been unsuccessful, leaving him with no choice but to bear the cost himself.
Neighbor Will Dickinson described the debris, which consisted of roofing materials, bathroom and kitchen fixtures, and various household items, as a harsh reminder of the challenges rural residents face.
Will, a sixth-generation farmer, remarked, “It’s incredibly unfair. The issue with these offenders is that they’re often quite savvy. They meticulously go through the waste to eliminate any traceable clues.”
‘Fly-tipping really doesn’t help when the costs of running a farm have escalated almost stratospherically and the price of crops has fallen.
‘There’s no cross-authority knowledge. If it’s hazardous, you go to the Environment Agency. If it’s not, then it’s your council.
‘If it’s in a dangerous place, you tell the police but if it’s a few bin bags, then it won’t get reported.
Tonnes of rubbish has been dumped on farmland near St Albans, Hertfordshire
The waste – including wood and household items, stretches across his field
After enquiries to locate the perpetrator have so far turned up nothing, the farmer, in his 80s, has been left to foot the bill
The man in his 80s, who has chosen to remain anonymous, said the piles of rubbish were illegally left on his field in Hertfordshire last summer
The farmer’s neighbour Will Dickinson (pictured) said the mess was a stark example of the reality facing the nation’s countrymen
The waste includes roofing material, bathroom and kitchen fittings, and house clearance rubbish
‘Despite this being 200 tons, the Environment Agency decided it wasn’t big or dangerous enough for them to get involved.
‘The judiciary need to stand up. They need to enforce fines and prison sentences on people. It worked with hare coursing, another issue which impacts farmers.
‘We need to be encouraging responsible behaviour at the very least – making it easier to get rid of waste in the household at tips.’
Government data estimates waste criminals cost the economy £1billion every year – with the amount of waste annually collected able to fill Wembley Stadium 30 times over.
The farmer was quoted £40,000 to remove the waste from his land because of fears over contamination from toxic substances.
He cannot afford it but could face being prosecuted if the waste is not removed.
In a statement to the National Farmers Union (NFU) he wrote: ‘It is just devastating. This is not covered by insurance and there is just no way that I am going to be able to pay this – I don’t know what I am going to do.
‘There is a week’s work here to clear it all as well. I have fly-tipping here every week, but I’ve never had it on this scale.
The farmer was quoted £40,000 to remove the waste from his land because of fears over contamination from toxic substances
‘The situation is getting worse and it disrupts our ability to produce food and care for the countryside.’
Mr Dickinson added: ‘He phoned me up last summer and he was distraught.
‘He has a field under a government scheme for growing wild bird food and it only requires someone walking through the crop every ten days to check the growth.
‘But a large two-ton concrete block covering the gateway, which he thought made the land secure, had been pushed out of the way.
‘We counted 40 loads of rubbish. Bathroom suits, kitchens, house clearance items and a suspected asbestos sheet were in the dump to name a few.
‘But the scariest of all was evidence of drugs and clinical waste such as syringes, needles and swabs.
‘I’ve previously lost five acres due to fly-tipping which contaminated my fields with glass and asbestos – you don’t dare harvest any of that crop.’
At a debate in the House of Lords in January, Baroness Hayman of Ullock said: ‘It is important to say quite clearly that the government do not believe that the status quo is working.
Government data estimates waste criminals cost the economy £1billion every year
‘We need to make changes because it is getting out of control. We are looking at the best ways that we can make changes to improve the situation.’
The NFU is calling for all authorities with responsibility for tackling fly-tipping to work closely together to secure more proportionate arrests and convictions.
They are also asking for a simple reporting mechanism to be developed and for the government to educate householders on their responsibilities for their waste.
NFU Hertfordshire Chair Robert Law, who farms at Royston, said: ‘I think fly-tipping is out of control.
‘This shocking incident in St Albans, where 200 tons of rubbish has been left rotting in a field for more than six months, is a clear example of that.
‘We are regularly seeing industrial-scale fly-tips being carried out by organised criminal gangs.
‘This devastates the countryside, damages the environment and is costing the industry tens of millions of pounds in clear-up costs, with individual farmers left with bills of thousands of pounds to clear rubbish left of their farms, despite being the victims of crime.’
The Environment Agency have been contacted for comment.