A council is investigating a "particularly severe" case of fly-tipping after documents were left among the discarded pile.

Residents of Runham in the Broads noticed the mess on the road between the village and Thrigby on Wednesday, which included toys, cosmetic products, personal documents and even coins.

One man who lives in the village but does not want to be named said fly-tipping was a "constant problem" in rural areas on walking routes and in laybys - but that this one had been particularly flagrant.

%image(14525058, type="article-full", alt="One resident said it "wasn't your average dump"")

He said: "We get fly-tipping here regularly because of how quiet it is. People know they won't be seen. Once we had an old caravan dragged outside the church.

"I know of so many villagers who spend their walks picking up other people's rubbish. If it's not fly-tipping it's people discarding their McDonald's packaging or energy drinks. It's just constant, and not really fair on us.

"On this occasion, the amount of rubbish dumped was rather severe. It wasn't your average dump.

"There seemed to be a lot of letters addressed to someone who wasn't from the village, and Great Yarmouth Borough Council rangers were made aware."

Great Yarmouth Borough Council confirmed it had cleared the waste on Friday and was in the early stages of investigating the incident.

%image(14525059, type="article-full", alt="Named paperwork and letters were left among the discarded pile")

A spokesperson said: "We are unable to comment on what enforcement action will be taken against those involved until the investigation is complete."

On a positive note, however, they added that the authority did not see a significant increase in the level of fly-tipping crimes over the Christmas period compared to what was expected.

The news comes as GYBC managed to prosecute a man who fly-tipped a sofa in a passageway in Great Yarmouth in June 2019. He was ordered to pay costs of £625 and given a 12-month conditional discharge when he appeared at the town's magistrates' court earlier this month.

The council said: "We'd ask anyone who witnesses an environmental crime or has information that may help to identify an offender to contact the Environmental Rangers on the Report IT GY App or by calling 01493 846478."