Fury after fly-tippers dump rubbish at nature reserve site
Residents have expressed their anger after a huge pile of fly-tipping was dumped at a nature reserve in South Staffordshire.
Waste, including dozens of bags of rubbish, a car tyre and several old shopping bags, has been left strewn at Highgate Common near Wombourne.
The area has been cordoned off, with Staffordshire Wildlife Trust now left with the task of clearing the mound of waste.
This comes just one year after South Staffordshire Council spent more than £100,000 clearing up fly-tipping.
Residents have taken to social media to express their anger over the incident.
One person wrote: "Just really hope there's something there to help track back the perpetrator."
Another said: "Absolute scum of the earth."
A spokesperson for South Staffordshire Council has confirmed that the nature reserve is the responsibility of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust.
They added: "Highgate Common is maintained by Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, meaning they are responsible for the removal of the fly-tipped waste, as well as the management and security of the site.
"South Staffordshire Council would be happy to work with the trust to prevent incidents such as this from happening again."
Hayley Dorrington, senior heathlands officer for Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, said: "We are aware of the fly-tipping incident at Highgate Common and have reported the incident to South Staffordshire Council.
"Unfortunately, fly tipping is a recurring issue that affects many of our nature reserves and wider rural community each year. In this case the trust will need to pay for a removal service, when we could spend funds on more essential conservation work at Highgate which is an area of Special Scientific Interest for rare insects, solitary bees, wasps and black oil beetles.
"We're urging anyone with more information to please report this to the council at envirocrime@sstaffs.gov.uk."
