Allotment land in Grantham is being blighted by selfish flytippers who continue to dump electrical appliances, office chairs and more on land which should be sprouting vegetables and flowers.
The land off Harrowby Road is littered with piles of rubbish which are causing concern for allotment holders.
Councillor Charmaine Morgan lives in Harrowby Road and is in the process of buying an allotment.
She said: “The problem we’ve got is South Kesteven District Council refused to do anything about flytipping so there’s an awful lot of mess from people driving in and dumping things.
“And if it’s on a communal area, nobody has a formal responsibility to clear it.”
As a result of waste being dumped, some of the land has become contaminated, caused by leaking car batteries and containers filled with chemicals. Coun Morgan said she has involved the Environment Agency in a bid to get the area cleaned up.
She has also involved other agencies to tackle further problems on the site, including threatening behaviour by an individual intimidating other allotment-holders and the removal of trees housing wildlife.
Unhappy with the action taken so far in cleaning up the site and making it safe, Coun Morgan has gone to the Local Government Ombudsman.
SKDC’s environmental protection team leader Pete Rogers said tidying up the land is not the local authority’s responsibility.
He added: “It is not the duty of SKDC to clear areas of flytipping that are on private property. It is the responsibility of the landowner to ensure it is removed. However should a landowner bring issues of flytipping to our attention we will investigate and where possible take action against those found responsible.”
Back in August last year, the Journal reported that several allotment holders were issued with a warning from SKDC, telling them to clean their land up or face action. Allotment holders said they had received letters threatening £20,000 fine or possible two years in prison if they did not comply within 30 days.
Although some fearful allotment holders took action, some spending a considerable amount of money in doing so according to Coun Morgan, nine months later there is still work to be done to clear the land.
An SKDC spokesman said the council is “still monitoring the situation” and added that there had been no further action after letters were originally sent to the allotment holders.