The farmer who fly tipped

Andrew Livingston calls for action on the relentless litter and flytipping that plagues farms … except for that one case of the rubble ...

Well done to the Labour Party (I’m writing this in the days before the General Election, but I believe the writing is on the wall!). Sir Keir, I have a message for you:

‘Now that you are our glorious leader, would you pretty, pretty please sort out the amount of fly-tipping and litter thrown from vehicles? As a farmer, I am sick and tired of my place of work being spoilt by the empty cans of Special Brew, cigarette packets and bin bags full of rubbish.’ It is relentless. Our farm in Beaminster seems to be the perfect distance from the McDonalds in Yeovil for drivers to have finished their food and launch it out the window and onto our drive entrance. I’ve got nothing against McDonald’s, I could even say I am a quiet fan of a LOT of their work. But I am bored and disheartened by the lack of respect from those who pass through our beautiful countryside.

Twice a year we go traipsing up and down the roadside picking up litter that others couldn’t be bothered to take home and bin themselves.

Can I have my rubble back?

Litter throwers are bad enough, but those who flytip are the lowest of the low. To drive from your own house in the middle of the night and dump bags and bags of rubbish in someone’s hedgeside or drive entrance is abhorrent. It happens constantly to a lot of farmers, and it is the bane of our lives. We have had rubbish bags, rubble, televisions, tables and even a toilet. Just take it to the tip. Please! Not only is it is an eyesore, but why should someone else tidy up your crap?

Figures released this year by DEFRA show that fly-tipping is on the rise. Dorset Council had a total of 1,659 incidents reported between April 2022 and March 2023, compared with 1,575 in the previous year. On top of this number are the countless cases where farmers don’t bother reporting it, deciding to just get on and sort the mess out themselves.

I have to give them their due, Dorset Council is quick on the job if you ever call in a case of flytipping. I’m not sure if they have time or capacity for investigating to discover the culprit, but they are quick to clean up the countryside.

We had a case a couple of years ago where a local dog walker rang the council to tell them a load of rubble had been dumped outside one of our farm’s field gates. The very next day the council had sent a team and swiftly cleared the issue. The only problem was that the rubble wasn’t actually fly-tipped ... It was our rubble. We had left it by the gate to build up the boggy patch of ground through the gateway. Understandably embarrassed for wasting their time, we decided not to tell them of their mistake and thought we’d just let them keep the rubble.