Ashfield District Council: Annesley Eyesore Transformed

Annesley Eyesore Transformed

Date: 6th September 2010

An astonishing 72 tonnes of rubbish has been removed by Ashfield District Council from a site in Annesley.

The site at Annesley Cutting had been a hot spot for fly tipping for some time and had become a sea of waste including; fridges and freezers, car parts, tyres, household appliances, nappies, plant matter, furniture, rubber tubing and masses of general litter.

Chris Barton, Neighbourhood Enforcement Officer at Ashfield District Council who led the clean up said: “The land was unrecognisable and was posing a danger to anyone who needed access and to the wildlife in the area. It was clear that some drastic action needed taking.”

Chris then undertook the laborious task of months of research, in order to trace the owners of the land so that a clean up could be coordinated.

Before the clear up

He commented: “The task of locating the owners of the land was made even more difficult when it became apparent that the space was owned by many different parties, owning small sections of the land each.”

Legal notices were placed at the site and owners contacted for payment towards the removal of the rubbish. Louise Ellis from the Legal Department at Ashfield District Council played a major part in tracking down land owners and was a instrumental in ensuring that the clean up was all above board and legal.

It became apparent that a large percentage of the land with waste on was, and still is unregistered with no known land owners, this also played a significant factor in making the job more difficult.

After the clear up

With contributions from Network Rail, Nottinghamshire County Council and Omnivale Ltd., work began on the site over a two week period. Council staff, equipped with a JCB worked tirelessly to remove the vast amount of waste which weighed 72.16 tonnes and included seven fridge/freezers and 35 tyres.

Chris said: “My colleagues and I worked extremely hard through two weekends on the clean up with the aid of the JCB digger. We removed skip after skip full of rubbish including items that posed major potential threats to the local wildlife, such as stripped rubber tubing and large electrical goods.”

The land is situated next to the site of a new housing estate which is currently under construction. The building contractors, Persimmons, kindly provided and installed a new gate with locks at the opening of the site to prevent future dumping of waste.

Chris added: “After a long period of persistent effort, the land at Annesley Cutting has now been brought back to its former condition and I would like to pass on my thanks to everyone who has assisted me in bringing this project to a conclusion.”

Councillor Warren Nuttall, Ashfield District Council said: “This is excellent work by the officers involved and I would like to thank the partner agencies for their co-operation and contributions which have helped make the remediation of this site possible. Now this work is complete we will monitor the area closely to minimise the chance of any further fly-tipping."

Fly tipping is a serious offence and anyone caught and prosecuted for fly-tipping can face a £50,000 fine and up to two years imprisonment.

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