A farmer has slammed "shameful" flytippers who left a boat full of rubbish in a country lane.

Glenda Crumpton who lives at Sharsted Farm in Chatham said the boat had also been set on fire, posing a risk to fields of corn next to Shawstead Road.

Contacting Medway Council on Twitter, she said: "This boat full of rubbish has been dumped in Shawstead Road, Chatham. It’s going to need a big effort to clear up. It’s shameful no respect for the countryside."

She later added: "It looked like it had been set alight because all the trees were scorched. On the other side of that hedge there's standing corn so it could have been a disaster if that went up. It could have spread to ours as well.

"I've only reported it on Twitter. They always say report it to the council but the website is an absolute pain.

"They've got a problem with this because the boat is on a trailer with wheels and the tyres are punctured. They need a truck with a hydraulic system that can lift the whole thing up, and they'll need something with a grab handle. It's going to take them a while."

She also believed other people had since dumped rubbish on top of the boat, which had been left around 100 yards from Capstone recycling centre.

"I couldn't believe it when I went down the road and saw it," she added." It's quite large, but I never saw anything going down the road.

"It was overflowing into the road. When the farmer starts harvesting it will affect him as well because he will have to a get a tractor past it."

James Brown, Medway Council’s Head of Regulatory Services, said Medway Council: “We are aware of the fly-tipping and we will be arranging for it to be cleared as quickly as possible. Fly-tipping is not tolerated in Medway and we investigate all incidents and will prosecute anyone found to be dumping waste in Medway. We would encourage residents to report any fly-tipping incidents to us on our website: medway.gov.uk/flytipping.”

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