Residents have been left “shocked” after 100 tons of rubbish blocked the only road into their village, leaving people trapped.
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The pile of rubbish was left in a country lane running to a dozen homes and 30 businesses at a nearby retail park in Curborough, near Lichfield in Staffordshire.
The staggering amount of rubbish, which is understood to have come from a construction site, measured 10ft high, 20ft wide and 80ft in length.
A large lorry is believed to have been used to dump the material on Watery Lane. Whilst the hamlet can be accessed normally from the other end, that section had been closed for nine weeks due to roadworks.
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A large lorry is believed to have been used to dump the material on Watery Lane
PA
The staggering amount of rubbish, which is understood to have come from a construction site, measured 10ft high, 20ft wide and 80ft in length
PA
A Lichfield District Council spokesman said: “Due to the scale of the fly-tipping, we immediately informed the Environment Agency. In the meantime, our environmental health officers are looking for evidence whilst we make arrangements to safely remove and dispose of the waste as soon as possible.”
Richard Cox, a local district and county councillor, said the waste could cost tens of thousands of pounds to clean up.
“Whoever did this are mindless vandals who are passing their costs onto the public”, he said.
“This needs to be properly investigated to see if there is any evidence in there as to who is responsible.”
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Homes and businesses had been completely cut off until yesterday morning, when contractors cleared the last of the rubbish off the road.
The humongous amount of dumped waste included building rubble, fencing, huge amounts of plastic as well as shoes, a hairdryer and several England flags.
Authorities have been praised for their “brilliant” effort in clearing up the waste, with residents believing the fly-tipping would have taken a week to clear. The clean-up effort took just two days.
Jeremy and Tammie Roney, who own the Mercia Distillery that was cut off due to the blockade, described seeing the fly-tipping for the first time.
“It’s quite shocking really,” Tammie told Sky News. “You have to see it to believe it. It’s a mixture of different materials.”
The blockade of rubbish has now been cleared
PA
Another business owner, Elaine Hutchings, said the mound was “unbelievable”.
“This morning we literally couldn’t get out anywhere,” Hutchings told the Telegraph. “Nobody could get in and we couldn’t get out.
“It was unbelievable. The actual whole lane was blocked with this huge amount of rubble. It was just not something that you would ever expect to see. At first I thought a lorry had had an accident, there was that much rubbish. Then I realised.”
Lichfield District Council believes the waste was dumped in two separate drop-offs – one at 11.00pm on Sunday night and a second just two hours later at 12.45am on Monday.
The local authority is now appealing for dashcam footage, which can be shared with council officers via its online fly-tipping evidence submission portal.
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