People are having to drive around a growing pile of rubbish in a road near London as fly-tippers keep dumping there – and the council says it’s not their problem.
Local resident Mark Smith, 53, says the unofficial rubbish dump has got so big that he has to ‘more or less’ mount the curb with his car to get around it.
The dump has appeared on Link Road, which is just off the A13 in Dagenham, east London.
It has been there for quite a while – and even shows up on Google Maps in an image from December 2020.
Mr Smith lives on the Rylands Estate nearby and says there have been fly tipping issues on the whole of the estate.
‘It’s a constant issue,’ Mark said. ‘People are dumping mattresses, fridge freezers etc on the footpaths.’
Mark says he had a meeting with a council worker earlier this summer, and that Barking and Dagenham Council are well aware of the issue.
However, because the rubbish is being dumped on private land, their options to resolve the situation are limited.
‘It angers and disgusts me. It’s the area I live in and it’s a dump,’ said Mark.
‘It makes the area look untidy and rundown, and causes all sorts of problems.’
He said of the flytippers: ‘Why are you doing this? Why can’t you take this to a proper place? Why can’t you dump it here?
‘Have you got no morals?’
A Barking and Dagenham Council spokesperson said: ‘The land in question is on private land which means the landowner has responsibility to deal with any fly tips on their land.
‘Barking and Dagenham is one of very few councils in the country to secure a ban on illegal encampments and fly-tipping which has seen a reduction in the amount of fly-tips on council land and green spaces and has since saved the council millions of pounds in clear-out costs.
‘Unfortunately, the ban does not cover private landowners who have to make their own arrangements to clear fly-tips on their lands.’
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