Lecturer ‘dumped 4,000 tons of waste at beauty spot’

AN ENVIRONMENTAL expert dumped 4,000 tons of waste in area of outstanding natural beauty, a court heard.

Timothy Saunders, 44, a company director and college lecturer, is accused of “serious environmental crimes” after putrid liquid was found buried in 4ft-deep woodland pits – among mountains of asbestos, barbed wire, tyres and refrigerators.

Gary Grant, prosecuting for Rother district council at Hove Crown Court, said it was “extraordinarily worrying” asbestos could be dumped in the privately owned woodland.

The court heard council investigators retched after uncovering huge amounts of building waste and rubble, metal, plastics, reinforced concrete, teapots, rubber tyres from large vehicles, barbed wire, radiators, fridges and microwaves dumped at the site.

The landowner had hired Saunders to carry out works in Barnet’s Hill, near the village of Peasmarsh, East Sussex.

Mr Saunders, founder of Rother Forestry, which provides woodland and wetland habitat services, denies dumping waste or allowing others to do so between 2009 and 2015. He also works as a part-time lecturer in forestry at Plumpton Agricultural College, Lewes.

Mr Grant said: “In one trench... around 4ft down there was a black liquid sitting around the hole full of oil.

“The prosecution do not assert that nobody else other than Mr Saunders ever fly-tipped on the land. But during the period of intense regular observations... it became overwhelmingly clear that it was Mr Saunders who was the primary driving force behind the enormous quantities of waste that were dumped.”

Saunders, of Wittersham, Kent, denies depositing controlled waste in the privately owned woodland and that he knowingly caused or permitted others to do the same. He has pleaded guilty to one charge of permitting controlled waste to be dumped at the site.

The trial continues.