Farmer hits out at fly tipping despite crackdown

Eight-wheeler trucks have been driving on to fields and tipping rubbish on the land – sometimes two at a time, a farmer has said.

Steven Conisbee said everything from garden waste to lorry loads of tyres had been dumped at his farm in Fetcham.

He was speaking about fly-tipping as Surrey Police pledged year-round enforcement to shut down waste-crime offenders.

Supt Chris Tinney said waste crime had a "far-reaching and hugely detrimental impact" on communities, with farmers and landowners facing bills of thousands of pounds to clear illegally dumped waste.

Conisbee said farm workers caught one culprit red-handed.

"It was obvious the rubbish in my ditch was from his van."

He said they had traced another load of waste back to a property in Surbiton where builders had hired a "cheap waste clearance company" to remove the rubbish.

Tinney, Surrey Police's lead for rural crime, said waste crime ranged from rubbish being fly-tipped from a van to "multi-million pound organised crime groups dumping a 44-tonne lorry's worth of waste on to the ground".

He describes fly tipping as a "really significant problem" in Surrey.

"It's not just the obvious in terms of the blight on the landscape, there is a real economic impact to this."

The police superintendent said if illegal waste was dumped on land owned by farmers, who used it to grow crops and feed the population, it was then "on them" to clear the waste.

"They have to pay and some of this could be hazardous material," Tinney said.

He said police were taking a multi-agency approach with councils and the Environment Agency to "shut down every potential avenue for waste crime offenders."

He said enforcement operations were planned throughout the year.

A crackdown last week saw fines issued for 10 waste-related offences, and investigations opened into four further waste matters.

Matt Higginson, environment manager at the Environment Agency, said he shared the public's anger at waste crime, adding that appropriate action would be taken against businesses and individuals found to be non-compliant.

Follow BBC Surrey on Facebook, on X. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.