Crackdown on flytippers targeting Hampshire beauty spots

Bosses at Lady Bradbourne's Broadlands Estate are fed up with flytippers dumping their rubbish on their land.

Now they have vowed to get tough and crackdown on the illegal dumpers who are costing the estate thousands of pounds a year.

Broadlands has become a regular dumping ground for unwanted waste and hedgerows.

Roadside verges at Lee and Ridge near Romsey are often strewn with rubbish thrown out of vehicles being driven through the two quite hamlets.

Broadlands Estates landscape manager Philip Marshall said that during the last three years the estate has suffered badly from flytipping.

He said: "Working closely with Test Valley Borough Council has been extremely worthwhile and a number of prosecutions are going ahead using evidence from our staff, security cameras and finding evidence within the rubbish which has been fly-tipped.

" The estate will also take legal action against convicted perpetrators given the time and money we are spending on this issue.

"It's not just the clearing of the rubbish that is costly but we have had gates and fences removed."

Mr Marshall said that after sifting though the rubbish it has been discovered that it has come from houses and business premises in Romsey and Southampton undergoing refurbishment work.

"Owners have a legal responsibility to ensure that builders and contractors have a waste licence and dispose of rubbish in the proper manner," said Mr Marshall.

And the ancient churchyard of St John's Church in North Baddesley was blighted on Remembrance Sunday when a pile of rubbish was dumped there.

Vicar of Ampfield, Chilworth and North Baddesley, the Reverend Victoria Ashdown said: "Fly tipping is dangerous to the environment, to wildlife and to children especially in a busy area such as St John The Baptist.

"Particularly during Remembrance season when many more people are visiting loved ones in the church yard and large Remembrance services and funerals are taking place.

"You couldn’t get any more disrespectful. Luckily the perpetrators left evidence which has led to them – Test Valley Borough Council are on the case.

"We hope that they will have conscience enough, if not for the church, but for those who we remember at this time to come and clear it up."

Officials at Test Valley Borough Council say that clearing up fly-tippers waste is expensive and council taxpayers end up getting saddled with the bill.

Last week the Advertiser revealed that during the last few years it has cost the authority more than £150,000 to remove dumped waste.

Borough cabinet spokesman for the environment, Councillor Graham Stallard, said: “Due to the rural nature of Test Valley, the area is sadly targeted by fly-tippers who believe they can dump their rubbish unnoticed.

“We investigate all fly-tips and work closely with the local police and the Environment Agency to track down offenders. A number of cases have gone to court and have resulted in successful prosecutions."

He added: "Where rubbish has been dumped on private land, we will work with the landowner to support them to remove the fly-tipped waste.

“Fly-tipping is illegal, dangerous and very expensive to clear up so it is important that we put a stop to it."

Councillor Stallard pointed out that people who pay for their waste to be removed privately should carry out checks on the operator providing the service to make sure they are genuine.

“ There have been a number of cases where people have paid for their waste to be disposed of in good faith only to find their rubbish has been fly-tipped, which can leave them liable to prosecution themselves,” concluded the councillor.