Cannabis, slurry and a chair lift - charity’s fly tipping on the rise
Woodland Trust continues fight against fly tipping, as costs rise by 22% in two years
New figures from the Woodland Trust have indicated how its fly tipping costs are continuing to rise, with expenditure over the last nine months coming in at £27,982, compared to £22,850 in 2013. This means that overall litter clearance since 2010, including routine litter picking and dealing with fly tipping, has cost the charity over three quarters of a million pound (£767,707). Defra have also released its own fly tipping figures for 2014/15 today.
This figure comes as no surprise to the charity, which has recorded 112 fly tipping incidents across its sites in England since the start of this year, but it fears that figures will continue to rise unless stronger deterrents for fly tipping are put in place.
Some of the most startling case studies from this year include a fly tipping incident at Gorse Covert Mounds, Cheshire, where waste from a cannabis farm was dumped just days after volunteers cleared other fly tipped waste. Meanwhile Miltonrigg Woods near Brampton had various items left including furniture, beds, a chair, mattress, dog basket, Christmas tree and decorations.
Elsewhere, there have also been unconventional forms of fly tipping. Staff at Scroggs wood in Cumbria have had to put up warning signs to stop children and dog walkers playing in a nearby stream, which has been polluted by people dumping animal slurry and milk washings. At Nidd Gorge in North Yorkshire, a dead deer was left in the car park.
Norman Starks, Woodland Trust UK Operations Director, said: “Fly tipping is an illegal activity that currently costs us tens of thousands of pounds each year to clear up. This means that a collection of mindless individuals are preventing us from caring for and improving our native woods for the benefit of local communities and wildlife.
“Fly tipping is just one of many threats our woods and trees, alongside disease, pests and development. I would urge everyone to remember their duty of care towards the natural environment; if we continue to neglect it, we run the risk of losing some our most valued woods and trees. ”
The charity owns and manages over 1,000 woods across the UK, covering over 22,500 hectares. Members of the public can become a guardian of the woods and safeguard local woods for future generations by visiting www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/guardianofthewoods.
