'Industrial-size' fly-tip dumped at beauty spot

"Industrial-sized" piles of waste have been dumped illegally at a popular beauty spot.

Six mounds of rubbish have been fly-tipped at Button Oak, near Bewdley including concrete, rubble, pipes, bricks and clothes.

West Mercia Police said officers were investigating, while Forestry England said the culprits appeared to have cut through a metal lock and turned a CCTV camera the wrong way before dumping the waste.

Richard Boles, from Forestry England, said it was the worst fly tip he had "ever seen", adding: "It's horrendous - we've got to clean this up thoroughly now, and it will come at a great cost to us."

"We occasionally get fly-tips dumped in our car parks on the sides of roads, but nothing on this scale," he said.

The land is part of Wyre Forest Nature Reserve, and is located in Shropshire close to the Worcestershire border.

Boles said the Forestry England team had been alerted to the fly-tip on Sunday morning after being "inundated" by messages from the public.

"It looks like it might be waste that's been rejected from a recycling plant or something - there's not a lot I can say about the people who've done this because they clearly haven't got a conscience," he said

The incident comes after widespread concern about fly-tipping across south Worcestershire - with police and the Environment Agency investigating suspected illegal waste sites in Peopleton, Evesham and Wadborough.

Boles also said he was concerned about the scale of the clean-up, and if anything hazardous could be among the dumped material.

"A proper inspection will need to be done of what's here, and there will be a cost to that - what we don't want now is lots of rain because that could wash some of it into the ground," he said.

"The wildlife is our biggest concern, really," he added. "This is the largest wooded nature reserve in the country - it's disheartening to say the least."

A West Mercia Police spokesperson said: "We received a report on Sunday, 11 October of criminal damage at the Wyre Forest, near Callow Hill, after an area of the reserve was broken into and a large amount of waste was left.

"Our enquiries are ongoing."

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