CODSWALLOP!
PROPERTY DEVELOPER HITS BACK AT CLAIMS OF ILLEGAL WASTE DUMPING ON FORMER PUB CAR PARK SITE
“I had a fire there the other day. It was a controlled burn. Environmental Health turned up and made me put it out. That’s when it started causing smoke.
“They’ve told me not to have any more fires, and I have agreed. They have inspected the land and they are happy. Somebody did fly-tip on the land because there was access. I have cleared that.
“I have not committed an offence. I am being falsely accused by Clr Cooper, who has been proved to be wrong before.” Mr Smith said rubble dumped on the site came from excavations at his home, which recently revealed a live spring and a 300-yearold well. He said that rubble had been used to prevent access to the land to deter more fly-tipping.
He accused Clr Cooper of “creeping around” the land and “hiding behind bushes” to take photographs. Mr Smith said he escorted him off the site as he did not want his children caught on camera.
He said he had referred Clr Cooper’s actions to the council.
Clr Cooper said Mr Smith, a father-of-ten, had previously employed the “tactic” of confronting critics whilst having a child with him. “He comes up with one of his children. He then says you can’t film because there is a child present. It’s a tactic and he’s done it before.”
The two men have previously clashed over a former bowling green in Newsome.
Mr Smith bought Newsome Community Sports and Bowling Club in 2014 after it went into liquidation with a view to building homes on the site.
Bowlers and Newsome councillors - including Clr Cooper - staged a protest, taking an angle grinder to break through the spike-topped metal fencing Mr Smith installed around the green.
He later had the 100-year-old green torn up. Those actions in November 2016 sparked outrage.
Clr Cooper has been one of his most ardent critics over the years.