Farming Matters: Day some trashy man gave me the V sign

Flytipping doesn’t only affect farmers. People with no thought for others tip rubbish all over the place, on community open spaces, roadsides and in ditches.
Flytipped rubbishFlytipped rubbish
Flytipped rubbish

But farmers do suffer hugely from this anti social crime and this Easter it is the focus of the National Farmer’s Union Love Your Countryside campaign.

In England alone during 2012-2013 there were 711,000 incidents of flytipping, with a case occurring every 44 seconds.

It has been estimated that two thirds of farmers are affected. Items routinely dumped include old fridges, chairs, mattresses, tyres and contaminated waste, with farmers and landowners left to pay the clean-up bill.

I enjoy walking around the area where we live and it appals me, especially during the winter months when the hedgerows and ditches are bare, to see the amount and variety of litter discarded, presumably by motorists who drive by and throw their rubbish out of the window.

There are items such as drink cans, CDs, shoes, bottles and general paper waste.

I shall never forget the day I was walking home and was just a few feet away from the entrance to our farm.

A large people carrier pulled to a stop at the top of our lane.

The window on the passenger side was wound down and the passenger lifted two carrier bags out of the window, turned them upside down, tipped the contents onto the top of our lane, dropped the bags and then drove off.

As I stood open mouthed watching this, the driver gave me a V sign.

I think that just about sums up the mentality of people who carry out flytipping.

Related topics: