I WAS pleased to see in last week’s Rural Focus Ian Liddell-Grainger drawing attention to the very relevant local issue of fly-tipping (County Gazette, July 27). 

I can assure your readers that this is not just a problem is not just a problem for farms. It is also a major problem for businesses. 

As a small business we use 1,100 litre bins. I leave them outside our gate, but still on our property and regularly have one or more filled with other people’s commercial waste. 

I started bringing them in and then the perpetrators just left their filled bags outside the gates, unfortunately the foxes then had a party before we found them. 

Two hours to clear up and £24 plus VAT to empty the bin it filled.

I did report one particularly bad case involving clinical waste to the local authority. 

I had proof of where the property had been 3 days previously and prescription only medicines prescribed overseas for the person at that address. 

It took the local authority solicitor six weeks to decide that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. 

Perhaps the council solicitor was unaware of the legal doctrine of “recent possession”. When I pursued the “tipper”civilly he admitted it immediately and paid up. Interestingly he had not been interviewed by the local authority.

Frankly we now investigate ourselves. We have limited success but I am about to return six bags of boxes of out-of-date crisps to the fly tipper’s front garden, which I suspect will come as a big surprise.

The local authorities are under a legal duty to investigate and enforce the law in relation to this and other environmental offences. 

They appear to use the oft-quoted, but rarely proved, “cut backs” as an excuse for not enforcing.

Perhaps someone should have a look at the authorities other activities and establish whether there are any of these that they are not legally required to do.

If there is a limited budget perhaps the rate payers should indicate the priorities. I would suspect that enforcing the environmental protection laws, including fly-tipping investigation would come near the top of the list.

WATCHET BUSINESS OWNER