A BIG mess was left behind on Monday, October 23, when a large load of rubbish was fly-tipped in the gateway of a field near Clawton.

Rick Fawcett, from Langaford near Ashwater, notified the public of the fly tipping through a post on Facebook.

This was later seen by Jack Dempsey, who works as a cleaning operative for Torridge District Council.

Mr Dempsey said he had been on his break when he saw the post and decided, to help save time, to contact his manager and see if he could help out. He later collected and disposed of the rubbish.

Mr Dempsey said: “I did find evidence and handed it over.”

It is hoped the evidence that Mr Dempsey found will lead the council to who dumped the rubbish by the roadside.

In response to the issue of fly-tipping in the area Torridge District Council’s recycling manager, Richard Haste, said: “Where our environmental protection team can they will always try to recover evidence on the source of the waste and will seek to take legal action against the offenders. In the case of the Clawton fly tipping incident the waste was searched by our crew before removing it and evidence has been found which we are now investigating further.”

He said that most cases of fly tipping in the area involve household waste. He said: “Most of the larger household items tend to get dumped in urban areas and are most likely the results of tenants moving out of rented accommodation or buying new furniture; despite our bulky waste collection charges being among some of the cheapest in the South West some people still choose to irresponsibly dump large items at the roadside.”

Mr Haste said one of the other main components of the fly tipping figure is construction, demolition and DIY related waste. It is thought there are two main sources, either small DIY projects and refurbishments being carried out by builders who aren’t registered waste carriers leaving lots of waste for their customers to get rid of or unlicensed waste disposal firms tipping waste from garden and shed clearances illegally. It also tends to be largely inert waste that is left such as old cabinets, rubble and other builders materials.

Mr Haste said: “Whilst obtaining a waste carrier licence is straight forward and cheap there is a cost to disposing of this at a properly licenced landfill site or transfer station. Unscrupulous waste carriers frequently gain customers by quoting a cheap price that will never be enough to cover the full cost of disposal and end up dumping the waste illegally.

“Households using cheap waste disposal companies should be aware that the duty of care regulations will place responsibility for dumped waste on them is they have failed to check that a private waste company is properly licenced and operating within the law.

“Our advice to anyone hiring a private waste disposal company is to ensure they can provide proof of their waste carriers licence and also give information on where waste waste will be taken to. In addition to this if a price seems really cheap we would advise caution. It is also important to remember that the Devon County Counil operated household waste recycling centres will take a large range of materials with many of them being accepted free of charge. There are also a number of charities that will take old furniture that can be resold or donated to households that need them.”