Quantock Hills. An Area of Outstanding Beauty

FLYTIPPERS are being warned they face stiff penalties if they commit environmental crime by dumping rubbish indiscriminately in the beautiful Taunton Deane district.

Punishments for flytipping are severe – and Taunton Deane Borough Council has just secured a conviction against a “man with a van” who dumped waste from a closed village post office on the Quantock Hills – an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Andrew Austwick, aged 41, of Lyngford Square, Taunton, admitted one offence of flytipping when he appeared before Taunton Deane Magistrates on Thursday 15 January.

Magistrates made it clear they took into account the severity of the offence and ordered him to complete 70 hours of unpaid work for the benefit of the community and to pay prosecution and clear-up costs totalling £500.

The magistrates told Austwick: “Your actions were quite intentional – you were out to make a quick buck. You hit the jackpot in terms of damaging the environment. The whole enterprise was motivated by financial gain and you were operating without a licence. Don’t do it again.”

Maria Casey, prosecuting on behalf of the Council, told the court that an assortment of rubbish, including a glass-fronted display fridge, cash register and other items had been tipped at 20 Acre Plantation, near Cothelstone, on 1 August last year.

After being alerted to the incident by the Quantock Hills AONB Service, Investigating officer Paul Stevens from the Council’s Environmental Protection team carried out extensive and complex inquiries and the trail eventually led to an address in Lyngford Square, Taunton, the home of Andrew Austwick.

After failing to get responses to requests to meet the officers to discuss the matter, the Council started legal proceedings last October.

Miss Casey told the court the waste had been cleared away by the Council’s DLO team at a cost of £280 and entailed prosecution costs.

Admitting the offence, Austwick told the magistrates: “It was my own fault. I should have gone by the rules and I did not. I’m sorry.”

After the case Cllr Mel Mullins, Executive Councillor for Environmental Services, said: “It is satisfying to note that the Courts have recognised the seriousness of this offence by awarding a very substantial penalty.

“We live in a beautiful part of the country and we want to keep it that way. Let anyone who may be thinking of flytipping be in no doubt of the Council’s determination to gather evidence and prosecute cases of this environmental crime”.

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