Quantocks flytipping 'man with a van' is convicted

FLYTIPPERS are being warned they face stiff penalties if they commit environmental crime by dumping rubbish indiscriminately in the countryside.
It follows the conviction of a ‘man with a van’ who dumped waste from a closed village post office in the Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
Andrew Austwick, aged 41, of Lyngford Square, Taunton, admitted the flytipping flytipping when he appeared before Taunton Deane Magistrates.
Austwick dumped an assortment of rubbish, including a glass-fronted display fridge, a cash register, and other items at 20 Acre Plantation, near Cothelstone, on August 1 last year.
The Quantock Hills AONB Service alerted Taunton Deane Borough Council to the incident and environmental protection officer Paul Stevens carried out extensive and complex inquiries to identify the culprit.
The trail eventually led Mr Stevens to an address in Taunton which was Austwick’s home.
Austwick was prosecuted by the council and the magistrates ordered him to complete 70 hours of unpaid work for the benefit of the community and to pay prosecution and clear-up costs totalling £500.
The magistrates told Austwick: “Your actions were quite intentional. You were out to make a quick buck. You hit the jackpot in terms of damaging the environment.
“The whole enterprise was motivated by financial gain and you were operating without a licence. Do not do it again.”
Maria Casey, prosecuting on behalf of the council, told the court the waste had been cleared away by the council’s direct labour team at a cost of £280, and prosecution costs were incurred.
Austwick told the magistrates: “It was my own fault. I should have gone by the rules and I did not. I am sorry.”
After the case, the council’s environmental services portfolio holder, Councillor Mel Mullins, said: “It is satisfying to note that the courts have recognised the seriousness of this offence by awarding a very substantial penalty.
“We live in a beautiful part of the country and we want to keep it that way.
“Let anybody who may be thinking of flytipping be in no doubt of the council’s determination to gather evidence and prosecute cases of this environmental crime.”

• Our photograph shows some of the rubbish which Austwick flytipped on the Quantocks. Photo submitted.

Hundreds of red deer to be shot as part of Quantock Hills management plans

PLANS to shoot hundreds of red deer on the Quantock Hills have caused upset among animal welfare groups.
They have condemned the cull event as ‘unnecessary and barbaric’.
But the Quantock Deer Management and Conservation Group said it would be necessary to reduce numbers of deer to levels which were ‘manageable’.
The group is asking landowners on the hills to help with the shooting, which will take place during Friday, November 30.
The current deer herd on Quantocks is estimated to have grown since hunting was banned three years ago to be close to the higher end of its annually fluctuating size of 700 to 900 animals.
Around 850 deer are thought to inhabit the hills, which are a designated area of outstanding natural beauty, of which about 700 are hinds and 150 stags.
The deer spill out onto surrounding farmland and cause damage as they feed on crops, resulting in friction between the farming and landowning community with animal rights groups.
The management group believes the herd needs to be reduced to about 500 in order for it to be properly managed.
It organises an annual cull of the red deer and said this year it wanted to have proper co-ordination of Quantock landowners.
The group’s secretary, Dr Jochen Langbein said farmers and landowners became concerned when they often experienced 50 or more deer on their property at the same time.
Dr Langbein said: "We aim to get deer back to levels people are happier with."
However, South West Deer Protection Group chairman and anti-hunt campaigner Kevin Hill said the cull would ‘end up a bloodbath’.
Mr Hill said: “I am concerned that we will have guns positioned on every farm.”
The deer management group was formed in 1991 to promote greater liaison between landholders, environmental organisations, huntsmen, stalkers, and other parties.
It is committed to ensuring the long-term survival of a healthy and well-distributed population of red deer in and around the Quantock Hills in balance with its environment and other land uses.