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SteveP

Joined: 23 Jan 2008
Posts: 155
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 13 9:46 am Post subject: Dumping

At the weekend I cut back the trees behind the brick building at the end of our garden and found the gap between the building and the boundary fence is being used by the 'new build' house bordering me to dump their garden waste.

Other than shoveling it all back over the fence is there anything I can do that doesn't involve solicitors if it continues? I did repatriate a sample just to show I knew what was happening. The council is unlikely to do anything as usual even though it is a direct result of their new waste collection policy.

I have thought about painting something on the rear wall of the building so it can be seen from their living room window.

I am open to suggestions. The obvious one (talking to them) is difficult but will be done when I can. The layout of the new sprawl makes it difficult to locate the exact house from the other side so it relies on them being in the garden when I check.

Piggyphile

Joined: 02 Apr 2009
Posts: 891
Location: Galicia

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 13 10:16 am Post subject:

I would suggest starting off very nicely when you speak to them and give them a 'get out clause' so they can save face, e.g. you assume they didn't realise it was your garden.....perhaps they thought it was unused.... (now of course you intend to use it yourself etc etc)

Confrontation be-gets confrontation much easier to ask them to stop nicely in the beginning. I never got on with my ex neighbour and an unspoken war can start with them flinging stuff over, you flinging it back lots of bad feeling and it is just not worth it.
My ex hubby still lives there and the neighbour still flings cat shit over (we are not the only ones with cats) as well as his garden rubbish.

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 13 10:18 am Post subject:
If you want to PM me your address - I can use our address checking software to see what the property address is on the other side of the fence - I work for a company that provides a platform for solicitors to do conveyancing searches and we have a mapping tool

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 13 10:20 am Post subject: Re: Dumping
Get a written quote from a clearance firm and give it to the perpetrators.

SteveP

Joined: 23 Jan 2008
Posts: 155
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 13 10:36 am Post subject:
I will be polite now that I have calmed down a bit (lot). I will talk to them when I can and will only escalate if it continues. Wokingham Council caused this and it is the arrogant councillors I am most annoyed with. They were warned by hundreds of people it would increase fly tipping but they insisted it wasn't a problem. Guess what, it isn't THEIR problem it is ours.

12Bore

Joined: 15 Jun 2008
Posts: 9089
Location: Paddling in the Mersey

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 13 12:05 pm Post subject:

Check for anything incriminating - anything with an address etc, if you find it, bag it and return it.
At work we had a neighbouring business (beauty salon) which had a habit of using other bins for their trash. Our bin would be filled with their stuff, hair cuttings, cans, bottles, discarded beauty aids and a disproportionate quantity of McD leftovers.
I bagged it and returned it to them, on a busy Saturday afternoon, in the middle of their busy reception area.
Unfortunately several of the bags spontaneously split, spilling the contents over the floor.
Never happened again.

Nature'sgrafter

Joined: 22 Feb 2012
Posts: 527
Location: Sanday , Orkney

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 13 1:53 pm Post subject:

When you speak to them remember to call it fly tipping so if the nicely nicely approach doesn't work as from personal experience it usually doesn't you can then go to the council and remind them of this.

" Local councils now have more powers to penalise illegal fly tipping and duty of care offences under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005. Fixed penalty notices can be issued if people do not comply with the duty of care obligations. They could also be convicted and face up to five years imprisonment, a fine of up to �50,000, or both. Further information on fly-tipping is provided in ENCAMS, Fly Tipping and the Law- A Guide for the Public."

https://www.environmentlaw.org.uk/rte.asp?id=29

Some people think the rules of polite society don't apply to them

SteveP

Joined: 23 Jan 2008
Posts: 155
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 13 2:21 pm Post subject:

Nature'sgrafter wrote:

https://www.environmentlaw.org.uk/rte.asp?id=29

That site it great. It gives a lot of info and the links are just what I need.

Steve

Nature'sgrafter

Joined: 22 Feb 2012
Posts: 527
Location: Sanday , Orkney

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 13 2:33 pm Post subject:
been there got the T shirt

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16004

Posted: Wed Aug 14, 13 6:29 am Post subject:

I agree about the nicely nicely approach to start with, but I would also ask your local councillor to come round and view the results of their policy. Sadly, I think much of that policy is dictated by central government.

Why people can't have a compost heap or bin is beyond me. My friend had one in a 12' by less than 50' garden in the middle of a city. She had a plastic one about 6' from the back door. There was a general rat problem in that area, but the bin didn't attract rats as she put a metal grid under it.

SteveP

Joined: 23 Jan 2008
Posts: 155
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Aug 14, 13 8:06 am Post subject:

Mistress Rose wrote:

I agree about the nicely nicely approach to start with, but I would also ask your local Councillor to come round and view the results of their policy. Sadly, I think much of that policy is dictated by central government.

Unsurprisingly the council is not interested in helping, I have already contacted them so they have to add it to their statistics. Luckily my son is a law student so I asked him where I stood with the council should I need to escalate.

He says:-

I've read the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 which your link refers to and the section on fly-tipping applies only to places where the public have free access, i.e. parks and footpaths. The offence of fly tipping is covered by this law and the Environmental Protection Act 1990 which deals with the duty of care aspect of fly tipping.

(2A)It shall be the duty of the occupier of any domestic property in England [F9or Wales] to take all such measures available to him as are reasonable in the circumstances to secure that any transfer by him of household waste produced on the property is only to an authorised person or to a person for authorised transport purposes.]

This only makes provision for a civil duty of care, it does not create an offence. The offences created by the Environmental Protection Act 1990 relate to vehicles taking stuff to be fly tipped.

Your options are to ignore it as a one off, throw the stuff back over the fence, or dispose of the rubbish and sue your neighbour for the cost of disposing of it. The council have no jurisdiction in this matter since it is taking place on private land with no access to the public.

So, despite the national fly tipping problem and the wringing of hands by politicians, there is no penalty for dumping if you don't use a car or dump on public land.

Last edited by SteveP on Wed Aug 14, 13 8:28 am; edited 1 time in total

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Wed Aug 14, 13 8:18 am Post subject:

Yep, fly tipping is a big problem for landowners as it is their problem and they are responsible for sorting it out.

We had a very similar situation where a householder was dumping their lawn clippings and leaves over the fence into the field. When the pile started to encroach into the crop after a couple of years we pushed the lot back into their garden. It hasn't happened again.

Another housing estate borders one of our grazing fields and I found a load of garden rubbish thrown over the hedge. I returned it in the same manner and we'll see if it happens again this year.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16004

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 13 6:42 am Post subject:

We had a lot of garden waste tipping in the woods when we went there. We started by mending the fence to make it a bit harder, then put up signs about Spanish bluebell and Sudden Oak Death, which was the in disease at the time.

We had another incident not long ago, but part of that was on the bit the council will clear, and the rest was burnt up. There were some bricks in it too, so we stacked those ready to remove, and someone pinched them!

madcat

Joined: 24 May 2008
Posts: 1265
Location: worcester

Posted: Sun Sep 15, 13 3:29 pm Post subject:
Who ever took the bricks probably thought you wanted rid, what would a load of trees bushes etc want to do with bricks

john of wessex

Joined: 18 Jun 2007
Posts: 2130

Posted: Sun Sep 15, 13 7:47 pm Post subject:

Although it isn't an 'offence' it may be possible to get the police to take an interest on the basis that if it carries on then it may become a neighbour dispute.

While it may not be an offence as such, there are an awful lot of 'cover all' offences that may be stretched to cover the situation.

It may also be possible to get the Local Authority to take it up an an 'anti social behaviour' issue as well and ask them to issue an ASBO or whatever its called these days

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