‘DISGUSTING and irresponsible’.

That’s what the fly-tippers have been branded after dumping their commercial waste in a pond near Hurn.

The area is becoming a ‘problem spot’ fears the chairman of Hurn parish Council Margaret Phipps.

She said: “It is just irresponsible for people to do this and they clearly have no sense of community. “It is disgusting at the end of the day but the thing is we can’t have someone there all the time monitoring this.”

She said that fly tipping happens all around the borough and that there are ‘hotspots’ that are targeted all the time.

She added: “Why can’t these people just do what everyone else does and pay to dump their waste the right way?”

Those caught fly-tipping can be prosecuted under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

A local resident who discovered the pile of rubbish said: “It seems like every week I come down I find more and more rubbish. It’s such a shame because the area is really beautiful.”

Every year councils spend a considerable amount of time and money removing this waste from the landscape and the site is investigated for evidence so that legal action can go ahead.

Flycapture, a government organisation, estimated the cost of clearance and disposal of fly-tipped waste to local authorities in England was over £74million for a year.

Mike Bell, Dorset Waste Partnership head of operations, said: “Fly-tipping is a crime and we would ask anyone who sees it to report it to their local council so that it can be cleared and investigated.

“Obviously, we should not have to use taxpayers’ money to remove this rubbish. Items of household waste should be taken to a local recycling centre, or you can request a bulky waste collection from your council.”

n How to report fly tipping: Residents can report fly-tipping via the website dorsetforyou.com/flytipping or by calling us on 01305 221040.