Told I'm responsible for removal of rubbish dumped on my premises

Filan

This what the County Council told me, feels very wrong. Can anyone shed any light?.

zuroph

more details needed.

Filan

Ok I found a sack of rubbish dumped on a strip of land adjoining my house, about a sixth of an acre and owned by me. There's just a wire fence separating it from the road and found the offending sack inside it today. I rang the council and asked whether they would remove it, they said that they would send an environmental officer around to go through the rubbish to see if there was any personal details within,I assume putting the rubbish back in the sack when he was finished, but that disposal of the rubbish, as on my premises is my responsibility.

Is this legally the case or could I force the Council to remove it?, I don't drive and my bin is usually full with my own rubbish.

Victor

If rubbish accumulates on your premises, you are repsonsible for it. However, you can chase whoever dumped it.

zuroph

Unfortunately, its up to you. You can try catch the person who did it, but these days they know all about trying to keep personal details out of that rubbish, so the likelyhood is slim unless you see them doing it and get a licence plate or similar.

Filan

thanks, feels wrong though:)

time lord

Very common occurance. One of the main farmers insurance firms in G.B. allow farmers to insure themselves against fly tipping as the volume dumped can can be large.
One large truck full of rubbish costs several thousand to dump legally so the threat is always there. Our local co.co. will not remove rubbish dumped on private land but when you accept this point of view they often post out a free bin tag after the discussion.
Very Irish way of doing things but they are loathe to set a custom and practice of free clean ups for anyone with litter/dumping problems on private land.
What happened sucks so lets hope the offender is caught.

Thoushaltnot

Filan wrote: »

There's just a wire fence separating it from the road and found the offending sack inside it today. I rang the council and asked whether they would remove it, they said that they would send an environmental officer around to go through the rubbish to see if there was any personal details within,I assume putting the rubbish back in the sack when he was finished, but that disposal of the rubbish, as on my premises is my responsibility.

That's more than we got - we were phoning for ages and even then the upshot was that we had to catch the culprits ourselves, in the act (I did but only for some of the rubbish and they denied the rest)/get it on video (at our own expense) or go through the rubbish ourselves, looking for personally identifiable evidence. Basically, if you do the work of catching them/getting the evidence that would hold up in a court of law, then they can step in.

What's more, if you decide to leave it there for the time being, and it's visible from the road/council/corpo/public areas, you could be charged with dumping....on your own land! :mad: Anyhoo, other similarly inclined people scumbags might see that as an easy target location for dumping rubbish, so best to dispose of it yourself. And "secure the perimeter".

Victor

Thoushaltnot wrote: »

you could be charged with dumping....on your own land!

No, you would be charged with allowing your property to be used for dumping or for allowing a build-up of litter.

artielange

It could be worse:eek:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/4903503/Earl-threatened-with-prosecution-after-a-million-tyres-dumped-on-his-property.html

sold

Victor wrote: »

If rubbish accumulates on your premises, you are repsonsible for it. However, you can chase whoever dumped it.

Yep, if you can't find who dumped it then you have to dispose of it. But it was good you reported it. If its ongoing you can get the gards involved.

cormie

I posted this just last night on another thread :eek: This case seems different in that it was maybe some local or commuting passer by in a car getting rid of their personal rubbish but I'll say it again

Folks this is why it's so important to ensure anyone removing waste for you has a waste collection permit. There is a strong possibility the garage involved got somebody to come and do a clear out, that somebody obviously felt there was more profit to go and pollute the country side than go to a waste facility.

It is illegal to collect or remove waste for profit without a waste collection permit unless it is incidental to another job.

It is the responsibility of the customer to ensure anybody taking waste has a valid permit. It's simply not right that this kind of activity is going on where the cheaper, uninsured, non permitted "man with a van" is taking business that a legitimate permit holder could have who will dispose of the waste in an environmentally sound way rather than spoiling and polluting nature. It may cost a bit more but there is good reason for this as the cost of getting a permit and disposal is quite high but far less than what you will pay in fines.

Victor

cormie wrote: »

There is a strong possibility the garage involved got somebody to come and do a clear out, that somebody obviously felt there was more profit to go and pollute the country side than go to a waste facility.

What garage?

cormie

Victor wrote: »

What garage?

Sorry, should have wrapped it in quote tags, that was from my other post in the other thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055747890

thomur

Ive just spend the weekend collecting rubbish dumped on my land in Clare. Have a small farm left to me by my uncle. Got a letter from the council saying its my responsibility ' regardless of how the waste came to be on the land in question'. 12 hours picking up cans, bottles, paper(all recyclable) and other things I wont mention. Bones of 3 dead calves. I have it planted in forestry as its bad land. Face ripped off me by briars. Told by the neighbours that people dump in forestry land as they think the council will pick it up. The thing is the bottles were good wine, the sausages and rasher packets were from superquinn, 200+ benson and hedges packets. In all that time I got one receipt with a laser number so hopefully the council will do sonething about it.Its on land not far from Kilfenora so they are not doing much for the local tourist industry either