Farmer Focus: Could easier local tip access cut fly-tipping?

We have finished scanning our ewes and we are pretty happy with the results.

We never expect terribly high scanning percentages as we are pretty low input and run majority Welsh ewes.

What we were particularly happy about was the empty rate, at 2.5%, as this has been a problem in the past when we had some acute fluke problems and was nearly 10%.

See also: Farmers hit as fly-tipping reaches record levels

About the author

Joe Mault

Livestock Farmer Focus writer

Joe Mault and his family run 850 commercial ewes across 155ha near Corwen, Denbighshire. The farm produces Beltex and Charollais prime lambs and rears 100 dairy heifers from six months to calving on contract. Joe also works at a local college.

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Finishing the scanning and fetching home-wintering ewe lambs from tack is a sure sign that spring is on its way, and as I write this it has stopped raining – for now, anyway (I think they call this fool’s spring?).

Talking of spring, we have recently done some cleaning in the house over half term, and I was tasked with taking some unwanted items to the local tip.

I drive a little Peugeot van and thought nothing of filling the back up and heading down to offload.

My wife had booked an appointment at the tip but, as I entered the site, I was pounced on by a local authority worker to ask where my permit was.

I was very confused to say the least, it’s not like I do this often.

I was told that as I drive a commercial vehicle, I hadn’t ticked the right box when booking my slot.

Some farmer negotiations followed and the worker let me unload the van after a stern telling off.

This got me thinking that it’s no wonder we have a fly-tipping problem in this country.

Simply taking a few things to the tip turned into a right pain in the rear.

Surely, we need to make the process easier for the public to take rubbish to the tip?

And even let the builders and commercial people use the facilities?

There is a clear difference between the huge, illegal fly-tipping operations that some farmers have to deal with and the smaller fly tips of household rubbish.

From our own farming perspective, we have had garden waste, the odd fridge, someone’s old bathroom and most recently a dumped 4×4 truck on our ground.

I reckon if the process of going to the local authority tip (or recycling centre, as I was told) was made easier, then we would see a reduction of the smaller scale fly-tipping and preserve our countryside’s beauty for a little bit longer.