Waste warriors wage war on Meon Valley fly-tippers

The popular television show, Grime and Punishment, followed the exploits of a team of volunteer clean-up workers as they removed rubbish from the Meon Valley countryside. The area has been plagued by fly-tipping in recent years and the group spent time removing items including oil containers, car parts, lorry tyres, a fridge and even a bottle shaped like a chicken from a footpath near Swanmore.

Vehicle tyres were also removed with many having been thrown down a nearby hill.

The clean-up initiative was organised by local businessman, Martin Montague, with the help of his fly-tipping reporting app and website. The app allows people to report details and send photographs of fly-tipping directly to councils.

Martin said: ‘We found and removed a huge amount of stuff that was not only an eyesore but was also a danger to wildlife and the environment in general. Waste crime is disgraceful - these fly-tippers don't care about the harm they do to the countryside as was proved by what we found today - amongst them was some very sharp metal items and an oil drum with oil in it.’

Volunteers were helped by local farmers and Hampshire based L&S Waste Management, who provided a skip to take the rubbish away.

Martin added: ‘Fortunately there are some lovely public-spirited people around like the folks who turned up today to help. Some of what they did today was really back-breaking and I'm really grateful to everyone who came to help.’

The fly-tipping app also allows users to compare prices for waste disposal, safe in the knowledge they are using legitimate and licensed traders. In 2017 to 2018 local authorities in England dealt with almost one million fly-tipping incidents.

The episode is to be screened early next year. For more information on the app go to http://ClearWaste.com