The Endless Problem of Newark Fly Tipping

It was in between the bursts of beauty and nature that I had to deal with one of Newark's uglier problems; that of fly tipping.

Ever since I started running and cycling regularly out in the sticks here, it is a rare day that you don't find some builder's waste tipped here, some asbestos tipped there, fridge freezers in a ditch at Cotham Flash, opposite the lay-by where once I found an entire old caravan stuffed with rubbish. But recently the issue was brought to national attention, where a so called "recycling depot" in town was revealed to be an unlicensed scam tip.

Here's how the Mirror covered it

I ran past the site for the first time in a while today, and this was the sight that greeted me;

it is still there. I contacted the council, and they said he Environment Agency are dealing with it. But an illegal waste dump doesn't suddenly become less of a smelly eyesore just because they are in charge of it. I haven't heard of any charges being brought yet either.

So, onto the path along the farmer's fields at the back of Grange Road, and within about a hundred metres, I found three more small fly tips.

I've let the council know, and they will get it cleaned up, but that's another wodge of money being thrown on a bonfire, and as ever no-one will be even caught fly tipping, let alone prosecuted. It's easy enough to work out why it happens - folk with a fridge to get rid of, rather than pay for the council to pick it up, advertise it for local scrap collectors to pick up for free.

Some of those dispose of it properly. Others just hack out the metal, and dispose of the carcass. The rise of kids picking up stuff on carts doesn't help, I saw a pair of them trying to smash out the pump before the rest of the freezer was heaved over a hedge into a paddock.

Can they be caught? Seemingly not. I would be curious to see what would happen if the council rigged up some camera traps, the sort normally used to film badgers at night, at known dumping sites and see if anything was picked up. Less costly would be to plant a fridge to be picked up, and follow it to see what became of it.

Just an idea or two. That I will get told are totally impractical!

Remember that Hideous Waste Dump I Photographed?

After a couple of weeks of increasing coverage on initially a local level, the massed heaps of rubbish finally made it to National coverage today when several raids were carried out around the country and six people arrested on matters relating to illegal waste disposal and, intriguingly, people trafficking.

As reported in local newspaper

It's hard not to get the impression that ever since there was a crackdown on illegal scrap dealing - a major part of the local economy - the protagonists have moved into waste disposal. Fly tipping is a problem round here, and every day you see folk advertising stuff for scrappers and waste disposers to pick up, a lot of which ends up dumped in the country lanes around here.

I wrote about this subject last year

No doubt we shall find out more as this story unfolds...

Si

It looked even worse on the news today

The Fly Tipping Scourge, Alas

It really felt like a proper early spring day today. Every day the sun gets higher in the sky, and thus even if the ambient temperature isn't actually all that high - 7C or so today - it still feels pretty warming.

I did 20 miles, two bike rides in one. Phase one was the Cotham route, Phase two the Coddington one. I was hoping to come across bumble bees or butterflies, but in the end I saw neither. There were no flocks of redwing in the roadside trees, no fieldfare in the fallow looking farm fields.

No, what I did see was a couple of barrow boy scrappy kids on Hawton Lane, taking the metal pump out of what looked like a fridge freezer. I may be being cynical, but I don't suppose they had the license to deal with a fridge stuffed full of coolant. Nor did I think that after removing any bits of value, that it wasn't going to be left just where they were messing with it.

I see an awful lot of fly tips while out on the roads in these areas, or running along Clay Lane. Two main types - builders waste, including asbestos - and the aforementioned white goods. It just makes me really angry. You see on Facebook all the time that folk are leaving out stuff for scrappers to pick up, not wanting to pay the council for removal, and frankly not caring what happens to it providing the carcass of a washing machine isn't left on their front garden.

Im probably being very very naieve, but if private contractors and collectors can make money out of scrap, why can't the local council? They could collect it for free, and make a little revenue on the scrap to plough back into local services. They are having to waste money on clearing up the rubbish anyway, people aren't going to stop fly tipping out of the goodness of their hearts.

And perhaps the drivers wouldn't be as dangerous as some of the current specimens, and the vehicles not so shoddy.

As for builders rubble, well, perhaps it might be quite easy to set up a camera trap at the well known dumping spots, and crack down hard on the miscreants. It sounds petty, but it really disgusts me when I'm out and about. Last summer, it seemed there was a fly tip every half mile between Cotham and Thorpe.

Well, I shall descend from my high horse now, and look forward to really starting to see some butterflies when I'm next off work! And head to RSPB Langford at the weekend, possibly, without getting blown away.