SURREY HILLS SurreyHills Society
SHS chairman Neil Maltby on the constant war against fly-tipping in the Surrey Hills
T
hose of us that love the countryside are frequently incensed by the sight of discarded empty drinks bottles, fast food packaging, and other items of detritus that litter the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) which is our Surrey Hills. As bad as this careless littering is, the extent and impact of fly-tipping is even more startling.
On a visit to the Old Surrey Downs
Project - a project that covers and maintains 25 chalk grassland sites in Surrey, Sutton and Croydon - I spoke with Alec Baxter Brown who told me about the difficulty his project has with fly-tipping in the Surrey Hills AONB.
Remote locations have become the dumping grounds for not only builders’ rubble and waste materials but also house clearance removal waste goods, motor car tyres and motor cars. These items are often set on fire, leaving glass and metal parts strewn over the surrounding area.
What’s more, I was interested to hear what an extremely difficult job it is to get a wheel-less wreck out of the wood or bottom of a steep slope. The pictures he provided were a real eye opener. Officers from Mole Valley, Tandridge
and Waverley tell a similar story. Rubble and waste gets dumped to avoid land fill tax. Asbestos waste, in its many forms, is disguarded to avoid the high cost of properly dealing with this toxic waste. Old tyres are also a problem, with loads in excess of over 50 tyres found regularly. Top of the fly tipping waste at this time of year is green or garden waste. Sometimes it is just a few bags, so individual gardeners may be responsible. More often, it is a small tipper truck load. What can we do to reduce this serious problem? If you are having building works done, ensure that the contractor gives proper assurances and confirmation that they are dealing with waste material properly. If you are having garden work done, check the contractor has, or employs those that have, a Licence to Transport Waste. Under the terms of the licence they have to keep records of disposal that can be checked.
If you see fly-tipping occurring, make a note of the registration number, vehicle
Dumped items are collected and taken away
type and make and let your local authority have the information. Tandridge have an appeals page on their website:
www.tandridge.gov.uk/environment/stree tcleaning.
This is a serious problem. Mole Valley is using sign posts and covert cameras to deter fly tippers. The maximum fine at the County Court is £5,000 or twelve months in prison, (the fines and sentences increase at the Crown Courts). To give you an example; an offender in Tandridge was recently sent down for 28 weeks. So let’s all work together to stamp out fly-tipping and keep our Surrey Hills beautiful.
www.surreyhillssociety.org.uk
www.surr e y downsmagazine.c o .uk
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