2:07pm Thursday 28th January 2010
By Ash Bolton
IT should be a picturesque area of outstanding natural beauty.
But instead fly tippers have been blighting the National Trust landscape by dumping tons of rubbish.
Dozens of tyres, piles of builders’ rubble and even a pub fruit machine have all been left strewn across the New Forest.
National Trust bosses say an increase in fly tipping across the national park in the last few weeks is now costing them £50 a day or £18,000 a year to clean up.
The charity, who own 2,400 hectares (6000 acres) of land in the forest said they are now looking at installing CCTV cameras across the park in a bid to catch fly-tippers in the act.
Doug England, Trust project officer for the New Forest, said: “We’ve found heaps of rubbish at Hale, High Town, Bramshaw and Cadnam, while the fruit machine was dumped at Rockford Common.
“Broken glass and metal could seriously injure animals grazing the commons. Every time we have to dispose of a dumped fridge, it costs us £30.
“Sometimes the rubbish is so unpleasant we have to call in professional waste disposal companies to handle it. It’s costing us thousands of pounds every year.
Doug said that Bramshaw and Ibsley are the worst affected areas with fridges, TVs, beds and mattresses being routinely dumped.
He added: “It’s got worse recently. The people that do this are irresponsible and selfish and don’t have any regard for people living in the New Forest or its wildlife. It seems that people just can’t be bothered to go to the tip.”
New Forest resident Don Hickson, said: “They are spoiling an area of outstanding national beauty for the sake of a few unprofessional, lazy tradesmen who are dumping their rubbish rather than taking it to the tip. They tend to come at night with a truck and dump the rubbish. Recently there was a whole load of kitchen and bathroom stuff dumped.
“It’s just vandalism. What sort of people would do this?”
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