hoads wood illegal waste dump

[Bootneck]

a 4 acre section of ancient woodland in Kent called hoads wood, also a sssi, was illegally felled last year, and used as an illegal waste dump. at its height 20 to 30 truck loads per day were dumped, with no licences at all. Locals contacted police, who said it was a civil matter. They then contacted the council and EA, who said they were monitoring the situation and collecting evidence. It took 7 MONTHS to close the site down, despite repeated pleas from locals during the whole time. no arrests made, no fines for anyone, norhing. now there are tens of thousands of tonnes of illegal waste leaching into watercourses. The EA and council says it is not causing pollution (if they say otherwise they will have to sort it out I guess).
Sounds like corruption at the highest levels of police, council and EA to me.

 

[toquark]

Sounds like an enterprise masterminded by our nomadic cousins.

 

[Top Tip.]

I did read about this somewhere. It shows what you can get off with if you have a brass neck. They will have made their money and disappeared no doubt.

 

[robs1]

Sounds like an enterprise masterminded by our nomadic cousins.

My immediate thoughts were pikies, us normal folk would have been dragged off instantly

 

[delilah]

Hoads wood was just one instance, there are a handful of similar sized illegal tips operating in Kent. Not sure its corruption, more like incompetence.

There is an element of 'crisis management' with regards waste, especially inert waste that can't be incinerated, the authorities will never admit to it but they know that shutting all these operations down will put even more pressure on the few legal tips in terms of shortening their life expectancy till full.

 

[delilah]

As this article shows the EA know of at least 40 illegal sites in Kent and Medway, most are quite small but there are at least 3 operating on a genuinely industrial scale with tipper lorries constantly in and out. It's a situation that is out of control, the EA know it, and tbf it isn't their fault, they didn't decide that the SE should be one mahoosive development site.

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/kents-war-against-the-illegal-1732/

 

[serf]

Laws only Apply to the law abiding....

 

[delilah]

For everyone quick to blame the pikeys: Someone has to sell them the land first.

The chap who wrote the rule book on running illegal tips in this part of the world, including how to fake your own death to avoid custody, was a pig farmer.

 

[Bootneck]

I'm blaming the authorities. police, council, EA, government. how difficult can it be to close these things down and arrest people?

 

[serf]

I'm blaming the authorities. police, council, EA, government. how difficult can it be to close these things down and arrest people?

Depends what people you are dealing with ...

 

[Blank]

I'm blaming the authorities. police, council, EA, government. how difficult can it be to close these things down and arrest people?

The primary legislation the campaigners are quoting seems to be the Wildlife and Countryside act and there are a hodgepodge of bodies involved. In this case, according to Wikipedia the lead body would be Natural England plus the cops.

Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The police would have the ability to arrest people (which no one else can do) but seem to busy with other things. The EA get dragged in and go into evidence gathering. Not sure what the lead regulator was doing.

Bearing in mind that the MAXIMUM (according to Wiki so I assume is up to date) on the wildlife act penalty is £20k and 6 months in prison (which no one will get and will take YEARS to get there) cant see the cops getting too excited about arrests.

On closing things down, you'd be surprised how difficult it can be but in this case it does seem to have taken too long. As see it the law has too many enforcers and the penalties are too low so really little to stop it happening again.

As for blame, that lies with the culprits.

​

 

[Exfarmer]

Compare the lack of action by the Police and EA among others toi this flagrant breaching of the law and swift jumping upon some poor farmer who stopped his neighbours property being flooded. Jailing should not just be for the perpetrators of this atrocity but for those who have stood back and done nothing for months as this went on.
One thing we can be sure of the fat cats who run these organisations will soon retire on very big pensions , having achieved sweet FA in their working lives.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

The primary legislation the campaigners are quoting seems to be the Wildlife and Countryside act and there are a hodgepodge of bodies involved. In this case, according to Wikipedia the lead body would be Natural England plus the cops.

Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The police would have the ability to arrest people (which no one else can do) but seem to busy with other things. The EA get dragged in and go into evidence gathering. Not sure what the lead regulator was doing.

Bearing in mind that the MAXIMUM (according to Wiki so I assume is up to date) on the wildlife act penalty is £20k and 6 months in prison (which no one will get and will take YEARS to get there) cant see the cops getting too excited about arrests.

On closing things down, you'd be surprised how difficult it can be but in this case it does seem to have taken too long. As see it the law has too many enforcers and the penalties are too low so really little to stop it happening again.

As for blame, that lies with the culprits.

​

‘You should gaze at your bins in horror’: the massive crime scandal behind the UK’s rubbish

The mafia is infiltrating our waste, and millions of tonnes of it is being illegally dumped. A shocking podcast uncovers the horrific environmental scandal – and its links to gun and drug trafficking

www.theguardian.com

 

[New Puritan]

It's incredible isn't it - how the EA and councils etc. can just sit on their hands whilst this sort of thing goes on. The BBC have run various articles on different sites like this appearing in Kent recently:

Iwade: Probe launched into mass fly-tipping on farmland

Waste, mostly shredded plastics, are being brought to the site at Iwade by lorries, say residents.

www.bbc.co.uk

Borstal: Pollution fears over unlicensed waste dumping

Large amounts of waste are being dumped within an area of outstanding natural beauty, locals say.

www.bbc.co.uk

Hoads Wood: The Bluebell woodland turned 'desolate wasteland'

Campaigners say a petition calling for officials to clean-up the woods has hit 6,500 signatures.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[yoki]

One thing we can be sure of the fat cats who run these organisations will soon retire on very big pensions , having achieved sweet FA in their working lives.

And with an MBE/OBE or whatever, for "services to society".

 

[delilah]

Most imaginative one I have seen was what must have been 1000 bales of black wrap silage alongside the train line into town, sat there for years to be seen daily by all manner of officialdom on their way to work. It wasn't silage.

 

[hoff135]

Obviously brown envelopes changing hands. With 20 trucks a day tipping it's not hard to catch whos doing it.

 

[Matta]

illegal muckaway is a major economic activity in the South East. They aren't all pikeys in the news articles, some just walking on the wilder side of life. But those involved with burying the grey recycling fines would be in touch with some very unpleasant people which probably maintains the complete inaction of official agencies. They will be making a lot of money avoiding landfill disposal and the possible fine/jail sentence is irrelevant.

 

[hoff135]

illegal muckaway is a major economic activity in the South East. They aren't all pikeys in the news articles, some just walking on the wilder side of life. But those involved with burying the grey recycling fines would be in touch with some very unpleasant people which probably maintains the complete inaction of official agencies. They will be making a lot of money avoiding landfill disposal and the possible fine/jail sentence is irrelevant.

If the police are scared then I suggest putting the sas in, be like watching a hot knife go through butter. Good practice for them

 

[Hilly]

Most imaginative one I have seen was what must have been 1000 bales of black wrap silage alongside the train line into town, sat there for years to be seen daily by all manner of officialdom on their way to work. It wasn't silage.

What was it ?