'Unbelievable' flytipping blocks rural road
BBCAn enormous mound of waste has been illegally dumped, blocking a rural road in Staffordshire.
Residents said the pile of rubbish was discovered at about 06:00 GMT on Watery Lane in Lichfield, having been flytipped there overnight.
The waste is estimated to measure about 2m (6.5ft) tall and about 15m (50ft) in length.
Lichfield District Council said it hoped to reopen the road as soon as possible and would hold those responsible to account.
Caroline Farnell, owner of The Pottery Cave in Curborough, said she had been unable to run her pottery classes due to the flytipping.
She said it had effectively closed off the road to businesses in the area because the other end was also blocked for building work on a housing development.
There were occasional problems nearby with flytipping she said, but only on a small scale.
"We've never seen anything on this scale, ever – it's quite shocking."
Fellow business owner Jeremy Roney said it appeared to be household waste and raised concerns that there might be sharps among it.
"It takes up the whole road, it's just horrific, I don't know how people can do it," he said.
He added his sales would definitely be affected because he had been forced to close, alongside approximately a dozen other businesses.
Councillor Phil Whitehouse, the council's cabinet member in charge of waste, said he was "completely shocked".
"The scale of it is absolutely unbelievable. I'm flabbergasted, to be honest with you. I'm almost lost for words."
He said those responsible needed to be held to account and it appeared to have been a calculated operation.
"Clearly there are people out there [who are] very imaginative in how they get rid of their rubbish and we're going to do all we possibly can to clamp down on that."
The council will investigate and has sent vehicles and staff to deal with the issue he said, but warned it would take "probably many, many hours – if not days - of work," to clear.
"Everyone will pull together to try to get the road open as quickly as possible."
Staffordshire Police said officers were called to Watery Lane at 06:15 following reports that a significant amount of waste had been left in the road.
The force added it had closed the entire road, as well as access through Eastern Avenue and Wood End Lane.
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