Hazardous fly tipping on the rise

A lorry-load of asbestos sheets dumped on a farm near Annan has shown the major flaws which exist in Scotland’s fly-tipping regulations and left the farmer facing a four-figure bill to have the hazardous material cleared, NFU Scotland claimed yesterday.

The union said that this was“yet another example” of the failure soft he Scottish government and local authorities to address the blight of fly-tipping in the countryside which had increased markedly over the past year. The load of asbestos sheeting was dumped at Broats Farm steading in Dumfries and Galloway at the weekend - and farmer John Jamieson has struggled to gain any support from the authorities over the incident. The volume of dumped asbestos immediately restricted access to farm sheds, straw and fodder for animals which required feeding.

“It’ s a hugely frustrating story as almost every person that Mr Jamieson and NFU Scotland turned to about this dreadful incident shifted the responsibility to someone else ,” said local NFU repre - sentative, Teresa Dougall.

“Although not wholly surprising, we had hoped, due to the extremely hazardous nature of asbestos, that someone would raise their head above the parapet.”

She said that not only did the issue highlight the lack of general support – both physical and legislative – in tackling the surge in flytipping across Scotland but emphasised that even when hazardous waste is involved, support still wasn’t available, leaving the innocent landowner to carry the cost of a specialist clean-up and disposal operation.