We've been caught fly-tipping. Now what?

[NameChangeSake797]

The council field behind our house hasn't been farmed for at least seven years as it's got planning permission for houses. Houses aren't due to be built for a couple of years at least (it's all been very underhanded and our small village will double in size).

Anyho, we've been doing a fair amount of gardening recently with us trying to make our garden more child friendly. We've been putting grass cuttings/general garden waste just over our boundary into the field. We've also had a couple of trees cut down/brambles cleared and we decided to 'distribute' the brambles/branches over the field to stop the brambles growing back (there's already loads of brambles growing in the overgrown field) and for the branches not to stop us from being able to access the field (quite often walk the dogs out that way etc).

We know it's technically classed as fly-tipping, we've never littered in our whole lives and generally believe us to be law abiding citizens. We thought of it being bit of a victimless crime as by the time houses come to be built it will just be compost. It's also snowballed into a false sense of security from throwing over the grass clippings for the last couple of years to dragging out a dead bush.

However one neighbour decided to film/photograph us distributing the garden waste across the field. We can only presume this is because she's going to report us to the council for fly tipping.

Can we just bring all the garden waste back into our garden therefore there's no actual 'evidence' or call the council/speak to the neighbour to apologise profusely? This happened at the weekend and we're actually scared shitless of what's going to happen. Neither of us have ever dealt with the police and the possibility of getting a criminal record/going to court/large fine is causing us sleepless nights.

I half believe this - they've got bigger fish to fry but then again we'll be an easy catch - photos/our address/our identity/we've not got the nerve to deny.

You were fly tipping and got caught. Garden waste should be taken to the tip or collected by the council.

you were being cheap and lazy.
Would it be okay for me to dump my garden waste in your garden?

I can’t imagine our council would give a shiny shit about this. They want to catch the fridge tippers and sofa offloaders. I’d be surprised if they pursued it. Don’t have sleepless nights about it! Why don’t you just talk to the neighbour and explain about the brambles and the path?

There is a 50ft steep slope behind a wall opposite our house, and all the neighbours on the street use it to dump their green waste. It’s quite brambley anyway and actually the green waste is good for the wildlife that lives there.

I still check over my shoulders and wait until the road is quiet before I ever throw my grass cutting over though, just in case 😂

I think the worse you will get is a fine though, my Aunty got caught doing the same thing once years ago and just paid the fine.

Clean it up. I spend my life reporting flytipping in my street.

We have fields to four sides. We regularly throw grass cuttings into it when our bin is full. It's grazing land but empty atm.

How bad does it look, can you show a photo?

How do you know neighbour was filming? And how do you know she's going to report? Have you spoken to her?

If anything it's out of bitterness how the council/local housing developers have pushed through a couple of thousand houses without properly consulting the village. They gave us a 30 minute notice that the developers were holding a consultation meeting during a random Tuesday morning at the village hall. Who on earth can just drop work with a 30 minute heads up? Last year they cleared at least a mile of beautiful hedge row in less than a couple of days.

We used to have a lovely farmed field behind us and not once was I tempted to throw over a single grass trimming. If anything we're doing all this gardening work as our once seclude garden will potentially have a three storey house overlooking it.

It will encourage rodents needs to go
Sorry you have fly tipped and need to clear it as it could cause infestation for you and neighbours

She's a couple of doors down - I don't know her from Adam but can't think of a logical reason why she'd be recording/taking pictures. She ducked behind her bush when DP spotted her.

I mean she could be sending it to her own DP to motivate him to sort their garden out but I doubt it.

I'm tempted to go speak to her but DP thinks this will give her hard evidence that it's us - right now she/the council can't be 100% it's from our garden.

There's not much to show tbh. All you can see is a derelict overgrown field. It's not like we've dumped a mattress in the middle of the field. We deliberately didn't dump it all in one pile as we wanted it to compost/not encourage rodents.

Chunks of wood & branches left in a pile to rot down make a really good wildlife habitat. All sorts of creepy crawlies, fungi, everything.

Please dont do that if there are any animals put in the fields it’s very dangerous especially for horses

Then the OP could have left them to rot down in her garden and her children could learn about habitats, fungi and have fun spotting different bugs. But this isn't about helping nature, as the OP admits they didn't want to trash the car and were too lazy to take them to the tip.

That really doesn’t make you sound any better. If anything, it’s more selfish as now the tax payers need to pay for you little vendetta.

It would appear you clearly knew you shouldn’t be dumping garden waste in the field as you knew immediately when you saw her filming, why she was doing it. And you’ve clearly being doing it a lot, and your neighbours know.

so I’d deal with your waste , go get it back and then stop doing it. At least one of your neighbours and likely more, don’t like it.

Your neighbour was probably filming it because you shouldn’t be doing it, which you know. Your neighbour isn’t the one in the wrong.

Clean it up and don’t do it again.

I wasn't commenting on the rights or wrongs of what the OP did.

if the field is overgrown and encroaching on your garden I would write them a strong letter ask them to clear the field for reasons of rodents. Explain you cut some of the brambles and threw them back.

if you were fly tipping normal house hold rubbish that would be disgraceful… but normal clippings I am hoping they would understand ..

Get one of these, they are great and keeps the car clean!

Lots of perfect people here. It's hardly the crime of the century. Sticking a fridge double bed and old armchair in the middle might be more noteworthy.

Is that considered fly-tipping? It seems fairly harmless.

About 10 houses over the road from us back onto a meadow where we often walk. Without exception, they all put their garden waste over their rear fences.

I'm tempted to go speak to her but DP thinks this will give her hard evidence that it's us - right now she/the council can't be 100% it's from our garden.

How would you speaking to her give her ‘hard evidence’? Either the evidence she’s got from filming shows you clearly and you can be identified, or it doesn’t. That’s the hard evidence. A conversation is a matter of ‘he said/she said’ - it’s not provable. (Unless she records you.)

The best way to sort this is a friendly chat with her.

I hate fly tipping with a passion, but tbh compostable material such as grass cuttings and brambles aren't something that would bother me. Especially as you've said it's over into a hedge, into land that's war marked for development, so chances are it'll rot down.

As for being prosecuted, I doubt they will take it overly serious due to the materials being dumped. Not like you've lobbed a mattress and fridge in there

But now might be a time to get a brown bin from your council and start using that for garden waste - it's only about £35 a year and they collect every other week