FLY TIPPING has taken place at a location neighbouring the home of Carmarthenshire County Council leader Emlyn Dole, The Herald can reveal.
Last week this newspaper received a tip off about the present of a significant quantity of waste material dumped in woodland near the former Pentremawr Colliery site.
Our reporter Alan Evans visited the location and took photographs of the scene.
On receipt of the photographs, The Herald contacted the County Council and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) regarding the fly-tipping.
NRW referred us back to the local authority.
Cllr Hazel Evans, the Council Executive Board spokesperson for Technical Services replied: “Thank you for bringing this to our attention, our officers will look into it.”
On later viewing video footage and checking the location against Google Earth and the Ordnance Survey maps used by the Land Registry, The Herald established that the location where the fly tipping had taken place was immediately behind land owned by Mr Dole’s wife at Fferm Capel Ifan, Pontyberem. The area abutting the woodland appears from an aerial view to be a maintained field with evidence of vehicles passing across it.
In order to verify ownership of the property, we examined Land Registry records which disclosed that the field has been in the same hands since 1998.
The rubbish dumped in the woodland appears to be an assortment of roofing materials (including what seems to be asbestos sheeting), an assortment of old vehicle tyres, car batteries and other domestic and building refuse. If the material does include asbestos, which is uncertain, then a special licence is required for its handling and removal.
Figures show that Carmarthenshire is in the top five performing local authorities in Wales for fly-tipping enforcement.
In February of this year, the Council announced that environmental enforcement officers carried out a total of 1208 investigations last year as well as 101 ‘duty of care’ related inspections.
At the time, Executive Board Member for Environmental and Public Protection Cllr Jim Jones, said: “Carmarthenshire operates a proactive strategy when dealing with fly-tipping. Firstly all our officers are trained and equipped to effectively deal with flytipping through investigation and prosecution.
“We use covert surveillance to target hotspot areas; this reduces the need for human resources and relies on technology to provide us with the necessary evidence for subsequent prosecutions.”
Carmarthenshire is part of Flytipping Action Wales, a Welsh Government sponsored initiative to help tackle fly-tipping.
Programme Manager at Flytipping Action Wales Gary Evans said: “On average there are over 30,000 flytipping incidents in Wales a year, the equivalent of one incident per hour, costing tax payers millions in cleanup costs. And it’s not just the price of illegal dumping; it’s also a criminal offence and a waste of valuable resources.
“We work with over 50 partners, including the 22 local authorities across Wales to reduce the number of cases of fly-tipping. Local authorities play an important part in the prevention and clearance of fly-tipping, and have done a fantastic job educating their local communities about fly-tipping and we look forward to seeing this work continue in the future.”
The Herald does not suggest that the material dumped in the woodland came from the barns at Fferm Capel Ifan or even that Cllr Dole was responsible for the presence of the refuse in the woods near his home, some of which appears to have been in situ for some time.
Indeed, when we realised the location of the fly tipping, we contacted Cllr Dole and asked him if he would clarify whether the property abutting this section of woodland was his and whether he had at any time suffered trespass where people have passed and re-passed across his property.
Councillor Dole told The Herald: “The refuse that your photographs have identified is historic in origin and I am unaware of any recent tipping at the site. The council is now clearing the area.”
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