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Clampdown on fly tippers
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| CLA regional adviser Jane Harrison finds more fly-tipped waste |
It was parked crookedly on a grass verge by the side of the A65 a few miles north of Ingleton, a battered old caravan, its tyres flat, its metal parts rusted. Significantly, there was a bare patch on the paintwork where the number plate had once been.
In other words, it had been dumped, any form of identification carefully removed, a scab on the face of some of the most beautiful scenery in England. The fly-tippers had struck again, just one of many thousands of incidents which are causing growing concern in rural England - and said to be costing some £50 million a year.
This tidal-wave of garbage engulfing rural areas like Craven is yet another Law of Unintended Consequences (LUCs) brought about by Government measures taken for the best possible motives - but not properly thought through.
A few years ago, the Government ordered local authorities to impose a big hike on the cost of dumping waste at municipal tips. The idea was to raise funds to properly dispose of heavy waste and recycle whatever could be re-used.
It apparently did not occur to anyone in Whitehall that, faced with bigger bills, unscrupulous people would stop using these tips and simply tip their waste over a hedge or wall during the hours of darkness in some quiet country lane. Sadly, some of those quiet country lanes happen to be in the Yorkshire Dales.
This is not only unsightly but deep-down dangerous: discarded bottles and cans can be a major threat to livestock but one of the biggest increases in fly tipping has come from small builders or DIY enthusiasts who dump all the waste from house renovations. Glass, slates, metal piping or electrical wiring can become a positive minefield for sheep and cattle - and even to the many ramblers who wander our hills.
And this is not the only problem for farmers whose land has been desecrated: they have to pick up the bill for clearing this muck away and that, according to the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has meant a £50 million bill for landowners.
Last month, the Government blocked an attempt to have the costs of such clean-ups transferred to either local authorities or the Environment Agency, when it was argued that the farmers were innocent victims and it was unfair they should have to pay for other people's illegal activities.
This refusal would "create more misery and mess in the countryside" said the CLA but such pleas were ignored, even though most country folk believe it was the Government's own LUC that turned what was a nuisance into a plague. However, all is not lost here in the Dales because Craven District Council has just taken action to find, warn and possibly prosecute the fly-tippers - and that could mean fines of up to £50,000, six months in jail, or even both for large-scale persistent offenders.
These penalties are laid down under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act of 2005 and the district council has appointed one of its environmental health team, Richard Abdoollah, as enforcement officer to track down fly-tippers and, if necessary, take them to court.
He has already issued two local people with £75 fixed penalty fines for what he calls "minor" fly-tipping cases. One abandoned the plastic wrapping from a new suite of furniture and was tracked down from the bar code on the packaging. Another had dumped household waste - which contained envelopes bearing his name and address.
Richard thinks that "naming and shaming" people for relatively minor offences would be counter-productive - but he is happy if word gets round that such cases will be vigorously pursued. And he is at present preparing the evidence for a case which he has recommended should end in court.
As a Londoner who has worked for CDC for ten years, he says: "I moved to this area because I love the countryside here. I believe passionately that it should be protected so would-be fly-tippers should watch out."
In the past decade, this Government has been introducing new laws at the rate of over 2,000 a year and with it far too many LUCs. Here's one which, now that administrators have been given the necessary enforcement powers, might actually work. A cleaner, safer Craven is in everyone's interest.
9:28am Friday 18th April 2008
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