A ROMSEY man has slammed a pile of rubbish he found dumped at the side of a road.

Peter Chappell, who lives in The Hundred, discovered the fly-tip in Lee Lane while out on a ten mile walk on Monday, March 2.

Now the 71-year-old has revealed he was “shocked” to find a sofa, pieces of wood, tables and other household items.

Peter said: “I couldn’t not believe it when I went on my ten mile walk; it was suddenly there.

“Some people cannot seem to understand they cannot dump things like that. It is ridiculous really.

“I go round there quite a bit and I was surprised to see it, because it is not as if the road is off the beaten track and there is quite a lot of traffic around there.

“It is a cut through for cars, so they must have come late at night to dump the rubbish.”

He added: “I was shocked, I could not believe people would do it; there were sofas and tables there so someone had a good clear out.”

“There were also quite a few bags up there so I would have thought there is stuff that would identify the person.”

When asked if Test Valley Borough Council should install more cameras to help crack down on fly-tipping, the retired HGV driver said “you cannot keep an eye on every lane, as you will have thousands of cameras across Hampshire”.

He said: “Nowadays you have to register your vehicle to dump rubbish and people don’t want to that, because when you go into the dump it takes your registration number, so that is more than likely why they go somewhere else.

“I am sure these people know it is illegal, but they take that chance because it is an easy way to do it.”

Peter added he will report the pile of rubbish to Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC), which he spotted at 1pm.

This comes after fly-tipping incidents in Test Valley have more than doubled in the past five years, according to a new report by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

A spokesperson from TVBC said: “Fly-tipping is a lazy, selfish crime that impacts everyone in the community and takes the council time and resource to have to clear up.

“We will thoroughly investigate every incident that is reported to us and if we find sufficient evidence, we will seek to prosecute you.”