Council is forced to spend more than £100,000 cleaning up after lockdown litter louts who ‘defaced’ beauty spot with waste including tents, deck chairs and leftover picnic food
- New Forest District Council has been struggling with fly-tipping and littering
- Since lockdown, families are leaving ‘entire’ picnics in New Forest, Hampshire
- The council had to spend £100,000 hiring team members and vehicles to cope
A council was forced to spend more than £100,000 clearing up after litter louts who visited a national park during lockdown.
New Forest District Council has been struggling to cope with overflowing bins and fly-tipping which are ‘defacing’ the area in Hampshire.
Families are leaving ‘entire’ picnics – including tents and deckchairs – in the New Forest, with the amount of litter left in the national park more than doubling since the lockdown was brought in, district council workers say.
Fly tippers are also thought to have made special trips so they could get rid of rubbish left over from their home makeovers.
The litter has forced the authority to spend more than £100,000 hiring nine additional team members and three vehicles to cope.
Council staff, who have undertaken double or triple daily shifts, are pleading with the public to dispose of rubbish properly in the New Forest.
New Forest District Council has been struggling to cope with overflowing bins and fly-tipping which are ‘defacing’ the idyllic area. Pictured: Highcliffe beach rubbish piled near a bin
The District Council’s Coastal and Amenities supervisor Stewart Phillips said: ‘People have changed how they use the sites since lockdown. Now people are bringing everything with them.
‘Before they would bring a small water bottle for their kids, but now they are bringing the entire picnic which generates so much more waste.
‘They leave everything that you would bring for a family – whether it’s a deck chair, a pop-up tent, or enough food and drink bottles for a day out on the coast. You’ve also got the takeaway boxes.’
The staff have found a range of items left on the beach including an entire dinner set with cutlery and plates.
‘Sometimes it’s so regular that the guys get almost complacent – nothing shocks them anymore with what they find,’ Mr Phillips added.
They have also seen an increase in the cases of fly-tipping, with people leaving mattresses, toys and building materials by the side of the road.
‘Fly-tipping has consisted of everything that people have wanted to sort out for years.
‘When all the tips were shut there was definitely a hike in that period.
‘I think people, since lockdown, have thought ”We’re going to be home for weeks so let’s do that tidy up we’ve never done”.’
For Mr Phillips and his team, it’s been a ‘frustrating’ development.
Since lockdown, families are leaving ‘entire’ picnics – including tents and deckchairs – in the New Forest, Hanmpshire. Pictured: Rubbish left by bins
‘It’s so needless and unwarranted. If the bin is full, take it home,’ he said. ‘There’s no need for it to be strewn around.
‘Unfortunately we are seeing a lot of people who either don’t care or just consider it as somebody else’s problem to deal with the litter.’
The council workers have never experienced the amount of litter dumped in the New Forest, describing it as ‘a relentless cycle’.
Refuse staff would usually tour one site per day to clear up rubbish but now were making three or four trips daily, each time returning with full vehicles.
Councillor Alison Hoare, cabinet member for the environment, said: ‘We understand that sometimes people think they are doing the right thing by leaving waste neatly by a bin, but any uncontained waste is damaging to our environment.
‘This is why we continue to ask people to be mindful and take home what they bring to the coast.
‘Unfortunately this is an increasing cost to the Council Tax payer and if warnings are not taken on board then we will have no alternative but to increase our monitoring of the area with our environment team.’
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