Farm 'barricades' its gates after suspected fly-tip

A farmer said he will have to pay about £1,500 to dispose of about 30 tonnes of processed waste that has been fly-tipped on his land.

Peter Sharpley farms 1,200 acres of land between Water Newton, near Peterborough, and Stamford, in Lincolnshire, with most of it running beside the A1.

He said he had put heavy farm equipment across entrances to fields in an effort to prevent it from happening again.

"From our point of view, we've just got to barricade ourselves in, that's all we can do," Sharpley said.

Sharpley said he had the worst harvest in 50 years due to extreme weather patterns, and the fly-tipping incident was just another worry.

"This year has been our worst harvest since 1976, and we will make a loss this year on the arable side... and to have another cost like this lumped on us is not very handy unfortunately," he said.

Sharpley said he would have to pay £1,500 in insurance excess fees to dispose of the waste.

"I have to get a special licence if I want to clear the waste myself and if I leave it here, I could be prosecuted for storing dangerous materials," he added.

Cambridgeshire Police said it was investigating a report of criminal damage after reports a gate was broken at one of Sharpley's fields near Peterborough.

Cambridgeshire County Council, which has powers to tackle fly-tipping, has been approached for comment.

Cath Crowther, from the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), said processed waste dumping was a "growing issue, especially on the main roads out of London".

Crowther said farmers did not always know if the material being dumped was toxic or hazardous.

"The material here has been through a waste process facility called a trommel drum, and the small (waste) particles that drop through are here - the valuable recyclables have been removed", she said.

Crowther added that criminals would need to pay landfill tax on disposing of the waste legally and therefore dump it because "they know they can get away with it and farmers are the victims of this crime".

She said the true scale of processed waste being illegally dumped was not fully known, as government figures for fly-tipping did not include on private land.

"We are calling for more co-ordination between the agencies that tackle fly-tipping, the local authorities, the police and the Environment Agency - we need to see more prosecutions", she added.

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