Woman wakes up to tonnes of waste dumped on drive

A woman says she has been unable to go to work after discovering "tonnes of waste" dumped outside her house.

Janet Atkins, who lives at Warwick Bridge near Carlisle, woke up to find "about eight hills" of debris blocking her driveway.

She has been told she is responsible for the cost of removing the waste and that will be about £10,000.

The Environment Agency said an investigation had begun into the incident, which happened on 17 August.

"It happened overnight. I discovered it at about 09:30 on Thursday morning," Ms Atkins said.

"We're looking at dirty waste. We're seeing shredded-up plastic bags, nappies, bits of plastic, vinyl gloves, cardboard, bits of metal, bits of plastic tubes. There's a bit of everything."

The "rubbish mountain" spilled on to the driveway, leaving her unable to take her car to work, she said.

"My first reaction was to phone the police. They don't deal with fly tipping.

"When I described that it was the amount of an articulated lorry, they said they still don't deal with fly-tipping. It's dealt with by the council."

After "five hours of phoning and chasing", Ms Atkins said she was informed that due to the incident location on the A69, the matter would be dealt with by Northumberland County Council.

"It's an awful thing to do. I am responsible for paying for clearing and moving

"It's upsetting. I'm losing sleep."

Ben Dobson, National Highways route manager for the A69, said the agency had inspected the site to identify the perpetrators.

He said: "The legal responsibility for removing and disposing of fly-tipped waste materials rests with the landowner upon whose land the waste has been illegally deposited. In this instance, the waste has been dumped along a private access site as well as on a layby which forms part of the A69.

"As soon as the resident got in touch with us, arrangements were immediately made to clear an access route to and from her property. The Environment Agency also needed to carry out its inspections, and check the waste was not hazardous, before we could arrange for it to be cleared.

"Now that the agency has concluded its investigations, arrangements are being made via Road Link for the safe removal and legal disposal of the fly-tipped waste from the A69 layby and the adjoining landowner's property, and we're in contact with the resident to arrange for this to cleared as quickly and effectively as possible."

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