Kent Tonight Special: Kent’s Climate Future

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As clean-up operations begin at a major illegal dumping site near Ashford, we investigate what is driving the national increase in fly-tipping.

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to a Kent Tonight special. I'm Michael Gorhan and on tonight's show we'll

00:18be taking a look at fly-tipping, a problem that's blighting both the environment and

00:22communities in Kent. We'll be travelling right across the county from the ancient woodlands

00:27of Ashford to the beaches of Sheppey to see the damage that fly-tipping has done first-hand

00:32and to speak to those directly impacted. But first we head to Hodes Wood, which is at the

00:38very heart of Kent's fly-tipping crisis, to a case that's received national attention.

00:43Work has begun there to remove illegally dumped waste from the area, which is a site of special

00:48scientific interest. But it's expected to take until at least summer 2026 before the

00:54job is complete. Our reporter Tessa DeLunay-Martin visited the site.

01:00This ancient woodland should be carpeted in bluebells but it is now buried under an estimated

01:0430,000 tonnes of illegally dumped waste. Contractors have put in place road closures for enabling

01:09works so that lorries can start clearing out the rubbish from the site. Local residents

01:13have been campaigning police, the council and the Environment Agency to address the

01:17problem since summer 2023.

01:48We're at the entrance to Hodes Wood and it may look like your typical ancient woodland

01:52but the grassy banks behind me are actually mounds of illegally dumped waste, some higher

01:57than 12 feet. And if you follow the path behind me, it takes you to one of the biggest fly-tipping

02:03sites in Kent, which local campaigners have described as having a devastating impact on

02:08the community and the environment.

02:11This is one of the main roads leading to the Hodes Wood fly-tipping site where trucks illegally

02:14dumped waste for months. Although the Environment Agency blocked the entrance in January 2024,

02:19this is just one site and fly-tipping remains an issue that cuts right across Kent.

02:24It's costly, it's unsightly and it's just very, very difficult to deal with but it's

02:29an increasing problem. I think fundamentally it's just simply too easy to fly-tip. I think

02:35the penalties are too low but then enforcement has got to be far faster and far more stringent.

02:43It's got to hurt those people in their pockets to make them not want to do this.

02:47The cost of clearing Hodes Wood is estimated to be between £10m and £15m. In a statement,

02:52the Environment Agency said,

02:54A criminal investigation continues in order to bring before the courts those using Kent

02:57as a waste dumping ground for profit. We have tested the waste for any rubbish that may

03:01have caused further harm to Hodes Wood. All clearance must be carried out in accordance

03:05with the law.

03:06Meanwhile, the extensive damage to Hodes Wood will take years to undo and the rural community

03:10will have to remain vigilant to see where fly-tippers go next.

03:16Tessa de Lunay-Martin there. Earlier I was joined by Ian Rickards who's the area manager

03:20at the Kent Wildlife Trust.

03:23Ian, you've seen some of the images from Hodes Wood. We've now learned that it's going to

03:27cost about £15m to clean it up. Should this have been sorted sooner?

03:33It shouldn't have happened in the first place, should it? So it should have been nipped in

03:36the bud. It was being reported by the locals and by the other woodland owners as soon as

03:41it started. It wasn't really a big surprise it was going on. And it was left for months

03:45and months and months before any action was taken.

03:48Frustrating.

03:49And what sort of, a lot's been said about, you know, the toxic waste that's in there.

03:54What actually are we looking at? What sort of thing is in this tip?

03:59Well it's all been processed. This isn't mattresses and tyres and things. This is professionally

04:05processed waste. So it's gone through a machine which basically chips out little bits at the

04:11other end and then collects it in lorries and dumps it off. So technically there could

04:14be anything in there. There's no telling what's in there.

04:18And what sort of damage then has this waste done and sort of might continue to do to the

04:23environment in Hodes Wood?

04:25Well, I mean physically it covers two acres of the woodlands. That's two acres which just

04:31doesn't exist anymore. In terms of damage there's just nothing left of it. It's flattened

04:36under 10 metres of waste. So that's all gone. We don't know then what the impact of the

04:41material seeping into the soil, into the watercourses. That could have massive ongoing consequences

04:48as well.

04:49Yeah, so it's such a beautiful area of woodland. I know, you know, during the spring there's

04:53usually bluebells growing there and that's something that I assume can't happen at the

04:57moment. Will we see bluebells growing there because it's an ancient forest and that's

05:01what sort of makes ancient forests quite famous, the fact that they can sustain flowers like

05:07bluebells. Is that now sort of permanently damaged?

05:10Yeah, I mean it's an ancient woodland. It's been around for so long and it takes such

05:15a long time. I mean trees grow and come and go and live and die and all that sort of thing

05:20and then they go back into the soil. It's a massive long process and for a woodland

05:24like that to establish and develop as an ancient woodland is a hundred year long event.

05:29So for things like bluebells and primroses and these ancient woodland plants, we're not

05:34going to see those back again in our lifetime.

05:37Ian Rickards from the Kent Wildlife Trust there. Now 45 minutes down the road is the

05:41East Church Gap on the Isle of Sheppey, the site of another illegal dumping ground. Josh

05:47McMinn visited the site.

05:50We're here at the East Church Gap on the Isle of Sheppey, which became a fly-tipping spot

05:53in 2020 after a local house fell into the sea. Shortly afterwards, dozens of lorries

05:58a day were seen dumping rubbish onto the wreckage. You can see here that there's different layers

06:02in the pile of rubbish. That's because when the lorries dumped their trash here, they

06:07would dump a layer of earth on top of it to cover up their tracks. As you look across

06:11the beach, you can see different layers of tyres, of plastic and building rubble depending

06:15which lorries dumped what. Right here, the smell is terrible from all the rubbish that's

06:21been dumped.

06:22On my dog walks, I see lots of rubbish. Quite regularly here, we have regular rubbish cleaning,

06:29which is really sad.

06:30It used to be like, when I moved back here when I was like three or four, I used to walk

06:34up here with my family and all that and it was just, it was so beautiful, but now it's

06:37just completely ruined and it upsets me a bit.

06:41But what's the driving force behind dumping like this? Could the problem be the high cost

06:45of getting rid of waste legitimately? Local farmer Paul Vickery told us that most of the

06:50waste dumped on his land is tipped by licensed waste companies.

06:54They're generally licensed tippers, but it's still cheaper not to go to the tip and just

07:01chuck it in a gateway.

07:03To find out about the high cost of getting rid of rubbish legally, we spoke to Perry

07:06Kemp, who runs Rubbish Master in Herne Bay. Perry told us that the things you see fly

07:11tipped most often are the things the council charges most for at the local dumps.

07:16Chairs, fridges, mattresses and sofas. They're the main things.

07:24The licences Perry needs to do his job cost around £6,000 a year, and yet there are no

07:28mandatory checks to make sure companies like his are operating legitimately.

07:33If you is a cab driver, once a year you have to take your cab to the council and get it

07:41inspected. Why can't we do that to people taking rubbish?

07:45How often do they check you at the moment?

07:47I don't.

07:48Whilst greater oversight could help prevent future crimes, it would still be too late

07:51for the people of Sheppey, who've been waiting nearly two years to see their beach cleaned.

07:58And I'm joined now by Stephen Thompson, who is a Green Ward councillor. Stephen, it's

08:04really nice to speak to you. We've spoken a lot on the show so far about industrial

08:08scale fly tipping, and the graphic that's going to pop up on the screen now essentially

08:13shows the state of fly tipping around Kent. Now, Maidstone, between 2023 and 2024, had

08:19the third most fly tipping. I wonder, why is it such an issue in Kent?

08:27I'm not sure that it is any more or less of an issue in Kent than it is anywhere else

08:31in the country. The figures have just come out for 2023-2024. There are 1.15 million

08:36fly tipping incidents in the country, a rise of 6% from the year previous, and Maidstone

08:42number of council officers tell me that this number is still increasing, despite their

08:46best efforts. So it is a symptom of what I think is the creeping normalisation of irresponsibility

08:55across society, from the individual level up to corporates and everywhere in between.

09:03One of the statistics in the data between 2021 and 2023 is that no one was actually

09:09prosecuted in Maidstone. How difficult is it to prosecute people for fly tipping?

09:15You have to put a great deal of effort into the entire process that makes that possible.

09:21So when I first became a ward councillor in what is now called Boxley Downs, which is

09:26between North Maidstone and the Medway boundary, leading up in the direction of where we're

09:31sitting today, then I was a new councillor and I was looking around at my experienced

09:37colleagues and saying, what is it that we do about this problem? And although I wasn't

09:41in the council programme at the time, experienced councillors, as it happens, of a different

09:47political persuasion to myself, said, well, let's put some more effort into fixing this.

09:52We met the officers, some new employees were taken on, some new skills were brought in,

09:59and over a significant period of time, more effort was put in to collecting intelligence,

10:05joining up with other agencies significantly, including the police and the environment agency.

10:10I participated in some group conversations where we shared intelligence. One thing led

10:17to another and now Maidstone Borough Council is reporting prosecutions in progress, particularly

10:24related to the new regime for fixed penalty notices. So the tide has slowly turned.

10:31I believe your party added seven seats in the local elections last time around, so it's

10:36clearly something that is potentially on people's minds. I wonder, going forward, what would

10:40you like to see done to try and prevent fly-tipping in Kent?

10:45On the matter of the democratic process, as you mentioned, the Green Party has received

10:53phenomenal support in the last couple of years. We went from no councillors to one to three,

10:57and now we're the leading party in Maidstone with the Liberal Democrats. People are discovering

11:04that by voting for hard-working local ward councillors, they're able to communicate their

11:11concerns about what's going on in the neighbourhood, get joined-up responses and see a programme

11:18of works come together, which, may I say, is the diametric opposite of the current government's

11:24plans to reorganise local government and reduce the number of councillors. So what I would

11:29like to see is the stopping of the removal of councillors at district level, because

11:36that really is the active heart of information between local residents and the large corporate

11:44bodies that deliver services across the county, without that vital link of political representation.

11:51We are stymied in all manner of ways, fly-tipping being one of them.

11:55Perfect. Thank you very much, Stephen. It's been really great to have you into the studio.

12:00Goodbye to all of our viewers tonight. Thank you very much for joining us. This has been

12:04a Kent Tonight special, and as always, you can see us on our socials at Kent Online and

12:10on our website at kentonline.co.uk.

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