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Prosecutions for fly tipping are quite uncommon, usually because evidence is hard to obtain and dumping happens in remote areas but Braintree District Council has sent a clear message that abuse of the countryside will not be tolerated after Craig Sanders (31) of Highfields, Great Yeldham was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £585 costs for dumping a pile of building waste on a disused airfield.

He pleaded guilty to fly tipping at Chelmsford Magistrates Court on February 5th 2007 admitting that he left paving slabs, cement bags, strip lighting, cardboard boxes and other rubbish on Ridgewell Airfield in September last year.

Garry Philp, Environmental Protection Officer was told that he was taking it to Sudbury tip, there was a long queue and basically he did not want to wait and thought he would come back tomorrow, but obviously he did not.  Written documents were found amongst the waste, which were traced back to Mr Sanders.

Cllr Wendy Schmitt, Cabinet Member for Public Protection at Braintree Council said “We have this absolute zero tolerance to fly tipping so of course we are very pleased we got such a good result.”

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£800 Fine for Fly-Tipper

Dean Harris, 38, deposited a large amount of garden waste next to his house in Hillside Gardens, Braintree, on land that belonged to Braintree District Council.

An Environmental Protection Officer, Garry Philp visited the site on July 17th 2006 after receiving a complaint regarding the waste and wrote to Mr Harris.  Mr Harris replied and said he would clear it up.  The waste was not cleared and he was invited to an interview at the Council Offices on 6th August 2006.

Emma Wisbey representing the council said “He failed to attend.  The waste still hadn’t been removed and he was invited to interview on September 6th, again he failed to attend.”  Dean Harris said in his own mitigation that it was going to cost him £160 to clear the site and that he was away at the time of the interviews.

On September 7th 2006 the Council’s Clean Team had to clear the site and the Council wrote to Mr Harris to say he had committed an offence. 

Chelmsford Magistrate’s Court ordered Dean Harris to pay a £300 fine, £300 costs and £200 compensation to the Council.

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