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.

Go and pick it all up. Then get a garden waste bin from your local council. There’ll be an extra annual charge but it isn’t much and they are well worth it if you produce a decent amount of garden waste over the year. Our collection service runs fortnightly from March to Nov.

I wouldn’t count that as fly tipping. The field I back on to has a huge sycamore which the farmer refuses to have cut. The branches hang over my garden so every now and then I cut them off and chuck them over. I also chuck grass cuttings over. It’s all nettles round the edge of the field anyway, no one would notice. If the council have the time and resources to prosecute someone for putting biodegradable waste on a field then I’d be asking some serious questions about why there weren’t repairing potholes or keeping the library open!

Your biodegradable waste may kill an animal. Do not throw clippings into fields - they ferment and are poisonous to horses and donkeys etc.

There are never animals in there. Just crops, which don’t come up as far as the boundary, hence the huge sycamore and nettle forest

@innerspace Thanks :-)

But it IS an issue, it’s not just ‘a bit of grass cutttings’.

As someone who battled with Japanese knotweed from someone dumping garden crap over a wall, people need to realise there are reasons why you can’t do this. You spread invasive plants this way and it’s wrecking the countryside.

I don’t know what will happen to you but your attitude is still blasé about what you did, you are only worried about the fact you got caught. You will say you have t thrown any invasive over but this is how it always happens. You aren’t sorry at all for what you’ve done, just that you got caught.

The stress, worry and expense I had from someone doing what you did is ridiculous, people like you need to be fined so you realise it’s not a ‘victimless crime’.

It’s fly tipping. It’s not your property and it’s just lazy not to compost/dispose of properly. Imagine if everyone in the area decided to dump their garden waste there. Unfortunately for you councils do prosecute for fly tipping. Maybe talk to your neighbour as the evidence is in the footage. Even if you now decide to do the right thing and bring your rubbish back into your own garden it is patently obvious it is only because you got caught. Your neighbour is totally in the right by the way.

I work for a local authority, I issue FPN's for this everyday. We always get the same excuses as above. Ultimately it is flytipping.

It's not harmless - creates areas of rotting vegetation encouraging vermin and prevents natural eco system growing beneath it. Your neighbour may not have seen it's just "garden waste" for all she knows there is rubble and all sorts in there

It also sets a precedent for more people to decide what they feel is appropriate to fly tip.

I would just stop doing it and keep your head down. If anyone comes to you she’s potentially got grainy evidence if you and your DP chucking some wood into a field. You don’t admit to anything else and only admit to anything if they’ve got clear evidence. I very much doubt anything will happen. Just don’t do it again.

I would absolutely speak to them before you go out trying to find your old garden waste in an overgrown field. If they are going to report you/share their recorded material, how would you prove that you had retrieved it? If you go out looking for stuff, it might also look as though you are dumping more as opposed to retrieving it. I highly doubt the authorities would take serious action about this, but if you are worried, put your mind at ease and speak to your neighbour before doing anything. Good luck.

I work for the council. We have a massive fly tipping problem . It costs well into the six figures a year to clean up all the shit that is dumped. Last year there were two penalty notices each one £160.

Honestly I struggle to imagine the council will give a shit about grass cuttings on a field. This is one of those complaints that we snigger at and send a bloke in high vis to look at the problem, listen to the complainer and nod sagely.

Get in ahead of them and complain to the council that failure to maintain the field means brambles are encroaching on your property. A bloke will turn up in high vis. You explain you are trying to keep brambles back by leaving off cuts. He will nod sagely and piss off never to be seen again.

I throw my grass clippings into the neighbouring field to stop the stinging nettles growing through my fence, tbh.

Then you’re part of the problem.

How utterly ridiculous.

On the contrary I also work for Environmental Services at a Council and we take fly tipping very seriously. We issue FPN for low level flytipping and prosecute anything bigger than a few bags. We include green waste and even liquid waste (ie things being tipped down drains etc).

A slam dunk case with video footage would instantly means a £300 fine.

Where I live flytipping is a real issue, furniture, rubbish, fridges, cookers, prams - you name it.
People complain, its eventually removed, Ive never known any one be prosecuted.

Four of my neighbours have literally just been fined for fly-tipping in our back street. And about bloody time too.

This - how anyone can think this is acceptable is beyond me. We’ve had this on our land it’s a fucking pain in the arse to sort out. STOP.

How would you like to have my garden waste chucked on your garden?

Until your grass clippings kill someone’s horse/other livestock. Why are you so thick?

Sorry what that was to the imbecile you quoted. If someone killed one my livestock in this way, I wouldn’t hesitate to sue them for all costs.

Oh do fuck off there isn’t any livestock on it and without substantial, and obvious, fencing work there won’t be.

our neighbour has been fined for bonfires. And we will report them next time too.

There's a difference between throwing grass on a field & dumping a mattress. Just like driving at 22mphs is different to 40mph.

I can't see the council doing much.

"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."

Except if you are going to report benefit fraud they people "should keep their beak out" or "mind their own business".

Always find that a weird dichotomy on MNs

Garden waste can have real environmental effects - invasive plants, damage to animals, blocking drainage or footpaths for others. It is beyond inconsiderate to dump it anywhere. There are options - compost heap in your own garden, council bin, tip. As someone who sees green waste dumping every day in drainage ditches and rhynes - please stop.

I’m shocked at the number of people on this thread who think it’s ok to dump their garden waste on someone else’s land while trying to justify it by saying that it’s for ‘wildlife habitats’ or ‘it’s only some grass and twigs, not a fridge’.

Near where I live, there are two lovely bits of woodland and grassland which are behind houses and in both, the whole sections behind the houses are covered in old, dead branches, huge piles of cut grass, dead plants etc which have been thrown over fences. It looks awful. The landowners are now starting to prosecute people doing it because a surprising number of them are clearly as thick as the people on this thread who think ‘it’s only garden waste’ and have admitted they did it.

You are fly-tipping. Stop being so fucking lazy and entitled and take your waste to the tip. I hope the neighbour does report you, @NameChangeSake797 and you get a fine.