‘How would they feel if they found it in their front lawn?’ - Wymondham farmer hit by fly-tippers five times in two weeks

Chris Cross, who has been the landowner at Barnard's Farm at Wymondham for over 60 years, and his grandson Barnaby, five, with some of the rubbish that has been fly tipped on their land. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY (Image: Copyright: Archant 2017)

That is the predicament faced by farmer and contract shepherd David Cross, who works his land between Barnham Broom Road and Melton Road, just north of Wymondham.

Mr Cross said he was fed up with the practice, which has seen building materials, household waste, garden trimmings and even baby nappies dumped in gateways on his property along Barnham Broom Road and Youngmans Road.

Mr Cross said he would now have to pay to have to the rubbish taken away - an unwanted job at an already busy time of year on the farm.

He said: 'It's obviously being done with a Transit tipper or something. Some people are just looking for an easy option to offload their rubbish.'

In once case, bathroom tiles and a shower unit were stacked up in a gateway, and the garden trimmings had been bagged up before they were dumped.

Mr Cross said the trash was a blight on the landscape and called for people to take more pride in the countryside.

He said: 'How would they feel if they found it in their front lawn? Our farm is our garden as well as our livelihood.'

Mr Cross said he had reported the fly tipping to the police as well as South Norfolk Council. But the council is unable to remove the waste as it is on private property.

Tim Horspole, the council's director of growth and localism, said their focus was on encouraging residents to use registered operators to dispose of their waste and watch out for rogue waste collectors.

Mr Horspole said: 'Businesses and residents must take care to dispose of their waste responsibly.

'Using non-registered operators may seem like a cheap option, but your waste could end up blighting our beautiful countryside and costing taxpayers hundreds of pounds to clean-up, and ultimately, if you don't follow the proper steps you could end up in court with a hefty fine to pay.'

How to guard against rogue waste collectors

The council advised residents to carry out the following checks when arranging for anyone other than the council itself to collect rubbish:

• Ask to see their waste carrier license issued by the Environment Agency - anyone removing waste from your property must have a license. To check a license contact the Environment Agency on 08708 506 506.

• Ask what is going to happen to your waste. You have a duty of care to take reasonable steps to prevent someone dumping your waste unlawfully.

• Record the vehicle registration numbers of any vehicle used by a private waste carrier to take your waste away. The waste carrier will be less likely to illegally dump your waste if aware that vehicle registration and details have been recorded. If waste is found dumped illegally and traced back to you, investigators will have more information to trace the culprits.

• Ask for a proper invoice and waste transfer note and get more than one quote - and expect to pay a reasonable fee. An unusually low quote, or an offer to take rubbish away for free in order to profit from any scrap metal that may be among it, should be treated with suspicion. Residents have ended up paying again to have their fly-tipped waste removed and disposed of correctly.

The council is urging anyone who is approached by a rogue waste collector to try and get the vehicle plate number, a description of them, and report the incident on 0808 168 2999.