The Welsh Government Woodland Estate is regularly used as a dumping ground for rogue fly tippers. Hundreds of fly tipping incidents a year are uncovered throughout the forests of Wales, costing Forestry Commission Wales and tax payer hundreds of thousands of pounds. Forestry Commission Wales staff have found various types of fly tipped rubbish including:
• car tyres (in their hundreds)
• asbestos
• carpets
• builders rubble
• household waste
• white goods
• dead animal carcass.
Some of the waste ‘illegally dumped’ could have been easily deposited at local authority amenity sites or even placed out with the bins.
Forestry Commission Wales has been working together with South Wales Police, Environment Agency Wales and the Local Authority to track down and prosecute fly tippers throughout the Coed y Cymoedd Forest District.
‘Hot spot’ areas in and around the Welsh Government Woodland Estate have been the subject of covert surveillance operations. These operations have already led to the arrest of a number of fly tippers and an eight month prison sentence for one unlucky criminal.
So what does the law say in relation to fly tipping?
Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 prohibits the unauthorised or harmful deposit, treatment or disposal of waste. 33(1) Subject to subsection (2) and (3), a person must not:
(a) deposit controlled waste, or knowingly cause or knowingly permit it to be deposited in or on any land unless a waste management licence authorising the deposit is in force and the deposit is in accordance with the licence;
(b) treat, keep or dispose of controlled waste, or knowingly cause or knowingly permit it to be treated, kept or disposed of:
(i) in or on any land, or
(ii) By means of any mobile plant, except under and in accordance with a waste management licence;
(c) treat, keep or dispose of controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment or harm to human health.
A person can be arrested without warrant and if convicted receive six months imprisonment and/or a fine not exceeding £50,000, on indictment for a term not exceeding five years and/or a fine.
Contact us
If you have any information regarding fly tipping or you suspect someone is fly tipping on the Welsh Government Woodland Estate in South Wales; please contact:
Sergeant Andrew Scourfield
Forest Crime Officer
Forestry Commission
Coed Y Cymoedd
Resolven
Neath
SA11 4DR
Tel: 0300 068 0229
Email: forestwatch@forestry.gsi.gov.uk
Alternatively, contact the Environment Agency hot line on 0800 80 70 60, or your local authority Waste Enforcement Team.
In an emergency phone the police on 999.
