Fly-tippers who dumped ‘staggering’ amount of waste on village road should be jailed, MP says

An MP has called for jail sentences after a “genuinely staggering” amount of illegally dumped waste blocked a road in his constituency.

Lichfield’s Labour MP Dave Robertson spoke out after an enormous pile of rubbish was dumped on Watery Lane, Staffordshire, cutting off access for local residents and businesses.

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“This was not a few tyres out the back of a transit van,” Robertson said. “This was an industrial scale, enormous fly-tip, which meant that the lane was completely unpassable from the north.”

The incident left nine households trapped and forced 20 businesses to close as the waste blocked their only access route.

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Robertson warned the fly-tipping had posed a risk to life, as emergency services would have been unable to reach affected properties.

With the other end of Watery Lane blocked due to a housing development, the MP praised the developer for opening a service route to assist those affected.

A waste management company called in to clear the site described it as their largest clean-up operation ever.

Lichfield District Council’s investigation into the incident has led environmental health officers to conduct searches at multiple waste sites.

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Some of these searches have extended beyond Staffordshire’s borders as authorities work to track down those responsible.

The council has gathered evidence from within the fly-tipped waste itself.

Officers are also examining footage from nearby CCTV cameras as part of their ongoing investigation.

Raising the issue in Parliament, Robertson highlighted that ministers were considering reforms to the business waste registration scheme.

Minister for Nature Mary Creagh acknowledged current regulations were inadequate.

“The carrier, broker and dealers’ regime is not fit for purpose,” Creagh said.

She added: “I’ve asked officials to look at what we can do to strengthen that to avoid the sort of casual criminality that we saw [in Lichfield].”

A spokesman for Lichfield District Council confirmed their investigation was continuing.

“As a result of this our Environmental Health officers have been to a number of waste sites, some of which are outside Staffordshire,” they said.

The council has obtained evidence from both the dumped waste and nearby CCTV cameras as they work to identify those responsible for the incident.

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