People in Sutton may be prosecuted for flytipping should they give their household waste to someone who does not dispose of it properly. The warning has been given by Sutton Council after travellers left a site in Hackbridge strewn with tons of waste last week. The site on London Road, adjacent to Bed-Zed and which has been earmarked for a new primary school, was illegally camped on by travellers for several days. When they vacated the land they left it littered with a huge amount of waste materials. A group of caravans and associated vehicles arrived on the Hackbridge site at approximately 4am on Wednesday 13 May. The day the travellers parked on the council-owned education land council workers had been due to start an archaeological dig, a Planning requirement for the new school.
The travellers departed on the evening of Sunday 17 May following welfare and education visits by Sutton Council staff with the support of the Safer Parks Police team.
Since then Sutton Council workers have been securing the site from further intrusion by clearing the dry riverbed, which had been filled in to allow access to heavy plant construction equipment. They have also implemented new security procedures including installing a new security gate, a concrete motorway barrier, concrete bollards and CCTV.
The police are assisting Sutton Council in sifting the rubbish waste to identify where it has come from and pursue prosecutions.
Cllr Jill Whitehead, Chair of Environment and Neighbourhood Committee, said:
“The police believe there are materials within the flytip rubbish that identify who the waste came from. Our environmental health team is at the Hackbridge site sifting through the rubbish to find addresses and identify where the waste came from and we may take a prosecution against the people whose waste it is. Any member of the public who gives their waste to somebody to dispose of and who then does not dispose of it according to the law can be prosecuted. When you are disposing of waste you must check that the person you give it to is licensed to take it. Should they dispose of your waste illegally, you may be prosecuted even though you may have thought you were disposing of rubbish in good faith. If it is your waste, then flytipping is your problem.”