Farmer Kevin Attwood frustrated as fly-tipping builds up in Boxley, Maidstone over six months
06:00, 21 June 2021
updated: 15:49, 21 June 2021
A farmer has spoken of his frustration after suffering six months of junk and rubbish being fly-tipped onto his land.
Bags of rubbish, pieces of wood and a mattress have all been chucked onto the site off Westfield Sole Road in Boxley, near Maidstone, where tipper trucks have even squeezed past tree trunks which were supposed to act as a deterrent.
The land is owned by Kevin Attwood, of Down Court Farm, Doddington, who thinks the fly-tipping has been worse in the past year with the country in and out of lockdowns with people now having to book slots at tips.
Mr Attwood said: “It is frustrating when you have put something there to prevent it but, still, people put their rubbish there.
“We did dig dry ditches along the Westfield Sole Road.
“We made them deep enough and wide enough to stop people getting in from the road.
“But where you get to where those two tree trunks are, there is actually a restricted byway there, which makes life a bit more difficult.
“We did actually put some soil across that but left it accessible to walkers and riders.
“But obviously, someone has used something to level it off and put their tipper truck in there and they have gone fly-tipping.”
Last year, proposals by Maidstone council to designate a large area in the parishes of Boxley and Bredhurst for a garden village of 2,000 homes were made. But after an opposition campaign group called Against Lidsing Garden Development grew from five members to 1,000 in a week, its objections were voiced in the House of Commons by Rehman Chishti (Con), the MP for Gillingham and Rainham.
The site was described as "ill-conceived" and "completely unsuitable" in March by Chatham and Aylesford MP Tracey Crouch.
Maidstone council, who were not involved with this particular incident as it is on private land, say they seized 32 vehicles for 23 fly-tipping offences last year.
They also issued 31 fixed penalty notices at £400 each for fly-tipping offences between March 31, 2020, and April 1 this year.
Liz Pool, who lives in Walderslade, suspects someone drove a vehicle there to move the tree trunk.
She added: “It is absolutely awful.
"The lot behind the tree trunk has been there for about six months. Obviously, somebody had put the tree trunk in front to stop people fly-tipping.
“But somebody appears to have moved it - I don’t know how because it is huge - and they have put it to one side.”
Mr Attwood, a former chairman of the Kent County Agricultural Society, says he hopes the arrival of 89 homes on land east of Gleaming Wood Drive in Lordswood will deter offenders.
Sign up to KentOnline's WhatsApp service and find out how else to get your news here.
