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© REX/Shutterstock The quick-thinking actions of a farmer helped police catch a man fly-tipping in a rural road. A resident spotted fly-tippers dumping rubbish in the West Yorkshire town of
Mirfield and when he confronted them they became aggressive. The resident called a local farmer and asked him to bring a large piece of farm machinery to attempt to trap the rogue dumpers.
See also: Revealed: The burden of fly-tipping on farms Farm staff came to his aid in a tractor which they used to block the fly-tippers’ exit route in their Mitsubishi truck from the
dead-end road. According to the _Huddersfield Daily Examiner_, in a Facebook post residents claimed the fly-tippers physically threatened two men with screwdrivers and called their own
reinforcements to try and break out of the tractor roadblock. COMMUNITY RESOLUTION When police were called the offenders fled the scene on foot, but officers later tracked down one suspect.
A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: “Police were called to reports of a male fly-tipping on Jill Lane at around 2pm on 16 October. “The suspect made off on foot prior to police
arrival but was subsequently traced. The matter has been dealt with by way of community resolution.” FLY-TIPPING TSAR The latest Defra statistics, released just last week, reveal the problem
of fly-tipping has worsened for the fourth year in a row. More than a million cases of the dumping of waste on roads and public land were reported over the past 12 months, a rise of 7% on
the previous year. This has prompted the Country Land and Business Association to call for the appointment of a national “fly-tipping tsar” to deal with the problem.
------------------------- STOP THE BLOT Fly-tippers are ruining our countryside and clean-up costs are crippling farm businesses. That’s why we have launched our Stop the Blot campaign to
help raise awareness of the damage caused by fly-tipping and tackle the growing epidemic on farms.