CIVIC chiefs are appealing for help after fly-tippers dumped rubbish on a Romsey road.

Bricks, pieces of wood and a plastic bucket were dumped in the gateway off Ryedown Lane, close to the Pauncefoot Hill junction in Romsey between Friday night and Saturday morning.

Now town bosses are urging witnesses to come forward.

Cllr Graham Stallard, environmental portfolio holder, said: “This is an extremely selfish act and once again we will use all our resources available to investigate and prosecute with sufficient evidence.

“This fly-tip is on a main road near Romsey and we would be grateful if anyone who witnessed anything could get in touch with our environmental services team. We have secured a number of prosecutions over the summer which resulted in around £14,000 being issued by the courts in fines and costs.”

This comes after the authority has announced a zero-tolerance approach to fly-tipping.

Earlier this week Defra has also announced that new penalties are expected to come into force next year and “will make it easier for councils to tackle fly-tipping and provide an alternative to putting cases through the courts which can be a lengthy and costly process”.

The government has brought forward the legislation required to introduce new financial penalties of up to £400 for householders who fail to ensure their waste is not fly-tipped by unauthorised waste carriers through a legal duty of care.

The news has been welcomed by CLA, the organisation which supports landowners across the county.

CLA’S regional director Robin Edwards said: “To really tackle the crime, raising awareness of the risks of being caught and increasing the number of meaningful prosecutions are the right methods that will bring about real change to encourage people to do the right thing and dispose of their rubbish through proper legal channels.”

To report incidents of fly-tipping residents can visit testvalley.gov.uk/mytestvalley or call the council’s customer services team on 01264 368000.

For garden waste subscribe to TVBC’s garden waste collection service.