Flytipping woes

djdust

Afternoon all.

Does anyone else have problems with flytippers dumping stuff on their property?

For as long as I can remember, the rear of my house has been a hotspot for it and it always eventually gets cleared up, presumably by the council. In January, for the first time ever in the 15 years I've lived here, I got a formal notice through the door advising me to remove "the accumulation" or face potential legal action. I politely emailed the council and explained that I had no means of doing anything about it as I have no car and work full-time struggling to earn a living. I got a standard response back acknowledging receipt of the email and heard nothing more. 2 months later, it all disappeared. As expected, just a couple of days later, more rubbish appeared in its place. I duly emailed the "StreetSmart" team again thanking them for removing the previous rubbish and advised them that more had now started appearing in its place. Got another standard reply acknowledging receipt and heard nothing more.

Today, 3 months later, I've now been served with another notice giving me 7 days to "consider clearing the land.."

!!!!!!. What's the worse that can happen if I don't do it? I *can't* do it, short of purchasing a wheelbarrow and taking a few evening walks to the tip 2 miles away....

JP08

This is being dumped in your back garden ?
If so - a few bob on a fence sounds in order ...

Outside your boundary - CCTV ?

djdust

Nah, it's not *in* my garden, but in the lane out the back, i.e. the *public* walkway.

I can't afford a CCTV, and don't see what purpose it would serve anyway...

robatwork

Tell the council in no uncertain terms (but politely) that they should be spending your council tax on cleaning this up and not by threatening you. Then move on.

muckybutt

If it is your property / land then the Council can serve you with a section 215 notice from the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 forcing you if necessary to clean the land at YOUR expense !

Failure to comply with the notice could lead to court action against you to recoup costs the council have incurred if they clean it up.

I know this as we were served with a 215 notice earlier this year to clear building rubbish out of our back garden because our neighbor had made a formal complaint to the council - the neighbor didn't even contact us !

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/8/section/215

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/8/section/216

djdust

muckybutt wrote: »

If it is your property / land then the Council can serve you with a section 215 notice from the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 forcing you if necessary to clean the land at YOUR expense !

Failure to comply with the notice could lead to court action against you to recoup costs the council have incurred if they clean it up.

I know this as we were served with a 215 notice earlier this year to clear building rubbish out of our back garden because our neighbor had made a formal complaint to the council - the neighbor didn't even contact us !

How did you find out it was your neighbours who grassed you up? Did the council tell you?

EssexExile

I don't understand, if it's not on your land why are the council telling you to clear it up?

djdust

EssexExile wrote: »

I don't understand, if it's not on your land why are the council telling you to clear it up?

Cos it's leaned against my garage and back gate? Of course, if I was to move it away and into the back lane properly, they'd probably then throw the book at me as they'd say they've got photographic evidence...

Bigphil1474

If the rubbish is being dumped on this land by somebody else and that land doesn't belong to you, and you have no responsibility for that land, then any council notice is irrelevant. The notice the council sent you should refer to you removing waste from your land, or possibly removing your waste from this land, but they can't serve a notice requiring you to move someone else's rubbish from someone else's land - it's almost always the land owners responsibility to clear the land.


Having said that, the best placed people to help are the council. I would write to them (e-mail should be okay), advising them that the land in question does not belong to you, that it is other people who are dumping the rubbish, and could they investigate the source and take action against the responsible people.
We have enforcement officers who will go and look at the rubbish, if they can identify the source, they will take action against that source e.g. addressed letters, invoices etc. They may even do covert surveillance to try and catch the fly-tippers..
The responsibility for the fly tipping is the source of the waste. It could be that some dodgy waste removal company are charging someone to take their waste away, but don't want to pay to take it to be properly tipped, so they find somewhere nice to dump it, and the council ends up taking it away. If it's from 2 streets down from you, they'll take action against either the person who originally had the waste, or if they can find them, the people who moved it. Also, dumped rubbish attracts more dumped rubbish, so it's "in the interests of public health" to get the situation sorted longer term.
I wouldn't recommend touching the waste - it just needs a neighbour to say they saw you moving it, and you'd end up being fined, plus if you kept moving it, more would come from wherever.
If it's being dumped by a neighbour, the only way to stop it is to catch them at it, if it's commercial dumping, it's probably unlicensed waste transfer as well.

djdust

I've just taken another look. I reckon, if the council wants to push it, they could argue that the rubbish *isn't* in the public lane but actually *is* on my property as there's a patch of concrete directly in front of my gate and garage that's not part of the main lane (if that makes sense?)

moneyistooshorttomention

Sounds like you need to go to someone "higher" than the Council to get them to back off.

It looks as if they are contacting you because you are the easiest target.

The way to deal with them might be to contact the Land Registry and, for just a few £, get a copy of your Title Plan to prove that you don't own the land in question - and send the Council a letter enclosing a copy of that for their information.

Better still might be to get the Land Registry to confirm exactly who does own the land in question and suggest they contact them (which could land up in them having to contact themselves - ie another Council Department) about it.

The Land Registry have a General Boundary Rule - which is to the effect that they cant/wont determine literally to the inch absolutely exactly where property boundaries lie. But the leeway on that is, as I understand it, plus/minus 18" each way. With that - I imagine this bit of concrete outside your property is bigger than 18" wide...