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.

but also i'm slightly miffed at the busy body - might get her a crossword book to keep her entertained in the future.

Don't be that type of law breaker: entitled and unashamed really except when caught. It doesn't matter that someone caught you and wants to report you. The one in the wrong is you who did something worth catching and reporting.

I should add that tipping garden waste into farmed fields is a real problem. An ‘empty field’ full of grass will be cut two or three times during the summer and gathered up for winter feed for the animals. So just because it isn’t being grazed regularly or containing some obvious crop like wheat etc, doesn’t mean you should tip you grass cuttings or any other waste there (or walk your dog over it).

I have in my role working for a local council, filmed a family throwing green waste over their garden into a play park repeatedly. They were fined. I don’t know where they were getting it from, they had a tiny garden and were throwing mounds of it over. Admittedly circumstances were slightly different as it was a children’s play area, not a waste land!

I’d go and clean it up if I were you!

We got some garden bags from Wilko - fairly cheap and easy to transport to the tip in the car. We find it more convenient than the garden waste service as we're sporadic gardeners and don't need the regular service.

Do clear up as much as you can, and hope that the neighbour doesn't report you.

Hire a herd of donkeys to eat up the evidence?

Clear up as much as you can and don’t do it again.

Maybe the neighbour won’t report it because she knows you saw her.

If the Council do look into this (and we would at our Council especially with the footage) it will likely be a fine of approx £300.

They’re all cunts. My friend’s horse nearly died and was in agony because of stupid idiots like that.

You've been caught, stop blaming your council and neighbour for your laziness!.

If your doing this other neighbours might think it's ok to join in. Except maybe sling dog shit in biodegradable bags or some food waste, after all it'll all degrade.

It's really not ok to dump your waste, although maybe your neighbour is filming as she thinks it's some kind of bizarre ritual, yhe pair of you spreading stuff round a field.

Go and clear it and don't do it again then you'll have nothing to worry about.

However one neighbour decided to film/photograph us distributing the garden waste across the field.

Could your husband and some of his male friends pay the neighbour a visit one evening and persuade them to delete the video?

Is it possible your neighbour thinks you are the ones that put the bbq and other crap there too?

Yeah because that will make things so much better.

I'd forget it, apart from the branches, tbh. If the Council contact you then apologise profusely, say you were trying to keep that bit of ground clear behind the gardens for everyone and offer to clear up the bit you did, then take a car load of bramble away (whether it's actually the bits from your garden or not, bramble is bramble, so the equivalent amount more or less).

Humans always think it's their right to dump their waste where ever 🙄.

Are you serious @TeaYarn? Let's turn a £300 fine into a stretch.

I'd have more sympathy OP if you weren't afraid of messing up your car as a reason for your re-distribution of your garden shite.

The only reason most fly tippers get away with it is they do it by stealth. The footage will be your ticket to a Council fine because they literally don't need to get off their arses to do it.

Of course you did.😴

Of course I’m not being serious. But if OP wants to start a stupid thread they can get a stupid answer 😂

Are you for real? Bullying and intimidation?

The op knows she's fucked up purely due to laziness, she just needs to retrieve the tree cuttings and brambles and get rid and not do it again

has she reported you on community face book?
ask her what she plans to do with the information

I like your style! 😂

I reported a sofa and carrier bags of rubbish dumped in woods behind our houses, including photos and screenshots of location to our council. They are still there over a year later. All local neighbours dump garden waste behind their houses, at least it decomposes. If the council don't care about real flytipping, they aren't going to be bothered about green waste being lobbed 12 ft over a fence.

Put the branches back in your garden & on ND or Fb. People with log burners etc will take them. A spoon whittler type took a load of mine. Don't worry.

So you're not flytipping noxious non degradable stuff, and if left for long enough would have composted, but thats not the point. It is flytiping.

For a neighbour to get pd off, how much have you put over your fence?!

I'm an ex waste regulator and I would ask you to remove it, but it's a local authority matter now, so they could clear it up and send you the bill - I've done this too where householders didn't cooperate. Best thing to do is go get it. its unlikely you will be prosecuted then - prosecuting someone takes time and effort and they only have limited resources, so enforcement priority shifts to those flytipping crap everywhere.

BTW, I worked in rail and whenever we did vegetation clearance you would see all the stuff householders threw over their fences. Next time you're on a train have a look. If it had been green waste noone would have bothered but it was a complete eyesore and obvious where it had come from....

You should have taken it to the tip like most people. Do that tomorrow, problem solved.

It is fly tipping and you need to retrieve it all.

As a landowner I am fed up with people thinking they can throw grass clippings over the fence. Clippings ferment and so are poisonous to animals. Please don't do it.