Nature reserve fly-tip costs charity £13k to clear

9 hours ago

Alex PopeBedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire

News image — A large quantity of waste appeared overnight, the Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs and Northants said

The Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs and Northants A large quantity of waste, in a nature reserve, showing a mattress, rubble, plastic, bags and household items. It has all been left on an area of grass. Trees are in the distance. — A large quantity of waste appeared overnight, the Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs and Northants said

Several tonnes of fly-tipped waste took more than a week to clear, costing a charity more than £13,000.

The Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs and Northants said the rubbish was dumped at the Fancott Wood and Meadows nature reserve, close to Toddington, Bedfordshire, in August.

It appeared overnight in its wildlife meadow and included flooring, mattresses, rubble, plastic, broken glass, insulating foam, gas canisters, appliances and plasterboard.

Aidan Matthews, its senior reserves manager, said: "It is unbelievable that someone thinks a nature reserve is an acceptable place to dump waste like this."

The trust said: "Staff time plus skip hire and removal has been a significant cost to the charity and taken the reserve team away from their work protecting nature sites in the area."

It confirmed that information that could potentially identify items was passed to Bedfordshire Police.

The Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs and Northants A large selection of waste in a nature reserve, left on grass. It shows bags of rubble, waste, buckets, plastic and sheets. A person is standing in the distance. There are trees to the right and behind the rubbish. — The trust said it took them a week to deal with the mess and to add up all the costs

Matthews said: "It was a shocking sight when our team arrived for a routine check of the nature reserve.

"There were piles and piles of rubbish everywhere, which must have taken someone quite a while to offload.

"This is the latest incident in the growing problem of fly-tipping on our nature reserves, and it is certainly the largest we've seen."

Specialist contractors had to be called, and it was money and time "that should have been spent on protecting wildlife".

He said staff from across the trust were called in to help, along with land management partners Natural England, the grazier, and a dedicated team of volunteers "to literally pick up tens of tonnes of fly-tipped material from the wildflower meadow".