Bonfire at fly-tip site

Workmen today created a giant bonfire to dispose of rubbish dumped by fly-tippers in a quiet lane near Shifnal.

Pensioner John Bridgman said he was delighted something was finally being done to tidy up the mess on the approach to Severn Trent's sewage works at The Hem.

The problem was highlighted when a motor boat was abandoned alongside an eyesore pile of tipped building materials.

Mr Bridgman, who lives near to the lane, said: "This morning they made a big bonfire of the wood and old building materials."

Our shocking pictures of building rubbish dumped in a lane near Shifnal are an illustration of the fly-tipping blight affecting the whole of Shropshire.

Country lanes around the county are increasingly used as a dumping ground by people too lazy or too mean to use an official tip.

The worst culprits appear to be cowboy builders using their trucks to off-load waste, as our photo gallery above illustrates.

Pictures by Shropshire Star photographer Andrew Cunningham were taken at the entrance to Severn Trent's sewage works near The Hem.

But they could have been replicated at many sites including the lanes around Little Wenlock and The Wrekin which are littered with everything from old fridges to surplus drive surfacing materials.

A dumped motor boat shell - featured on the Shropshire Star's front page on Tuesday - has now been removed from outside Severn Trent's gates near The Hem.

But the grass there is still covered with a pile of dumped material which had obviously been discarded while modernising a house.

It includes plastic buckets, old gutters, empty tubes of silicon sealant, off-cuts of plastic imitation wood panelling, empty building sand bags, corrugated plastic roofing and instructions and off-cuts from roofing and guttering accessories.

John Bridgman, 75, who lives nearby at Shifnal Manor Barns, regularly walks his three dogs along the lane and says the state of the lane is an appalling advertisement for Shropshire.

"It's on the Shropshire Way long-distance footpath and part of the route of the Shifnal Steeplechase half-marathon," he said.

"Builders are perpetually dropping off their rubbish there. The pile of stuff is enormous. It's unbelievable."

* Do you know of any illegal dumping grounds in Shropshire? Contact the newsdesk on (01952) 242424 or e-mail [email protected]

Most of the rubbish appears to have come from the building trade.

Fly-tipping has left this country lane near Shifnal an eyesore.

A roofing materials leaflet.

Empty building sand bags.

The boat that was dumped at The Hem, near Shifnal.

Photo by Mike Hayward.