Fly tipping - an expensive and messy business...
Expensive because it costs us ALL around £100,000 a day to clear up and messy because it blights streets in towns and cities across the UK. The countryside, too...
(Do you have something to say about this story? Tell us what you think by emailing us here. Don't forget to include 'Fly Tipping' in the subject line. Watchdog will publish a selection of viewers' comments underneath each story, both throughout and after the programme is on air. Please remember to include your name as you would like to see it published).
There are more than a million reports of illegally dumped rubbish every year - one every 12 seconds. Tyres, furniture, building rubble. You name it, it's been dumped.
So who's refusing to dispose of our refuse properly? We went to the south coast to meet Mr. Marc Bairstow. He's known to the authorities in Southampton for being a fly-tipper, and has dumped all over the city for months. But one of his regular haunts has really got the residents riled...
Martin Petch is the warden at the Holy Trinity Church in Millbrook in west Southampton, where they've had a few messy visitors of late. Describing what the average visitor to his churchyard might see, he said,
"... An assortment of materials from house clearances; building materials, and rubbish, toys. You name it, it was all there... it was quite a considerable amount and it took several days to clear in the end.
"Really, it's hitting community at its lowest ebb. People mourning, coming to visit graves, people going to worship and they were greeted with site of rubbish. So it was really quite appalling."
Describing the financial impact of fly-tipping on the church and the community, he added,
"It's cost us in the order of £2000, which we can ill afford."
Marc Bairstow isn't just known for fly-tipping - he's the scourge of the city on the Solent. In 2005, he featured in the local papers 'Crack a crime for Easter campaign' where he was wanted for spitting blood and racial abuse, aggravated assault and criminal damage. And he's been linked to fly tips all across the county. Needless to say, he doesn't have a Waste Carriers Licence - a document issued by the Environment Agency which means you can take away other people's rubbish. If you don't have one for you and your car, doing so is illegal.
We 'invited' Marc Bairstow around to a house in Southampton, sprinkled with secret cameras in order to film him as he collected a pile of rubbish from us. The rubbish was sprayed with a clever glow-in-the-dark spray called Smartwater - it's invisible to the naked eye but it shows up when you shine a UV light across it. We also planted a tracker so we can follow the rubbish.
After Marc Bairstow arrived, our researcher asked him how much it would cost to get rid of our stuff. He replied, "About 130... "
Not a bad rate for the job. So far, so good. But then, Marc shared the details of a disposal job he'd just carried out, mentioning that he'd "charged... nearly 800 on that asbestos."
Asbestos. That's not good. Breathing in asbestos fibres can be highly dangerous and is responsible for around 4000 deaths in the UK every year. Moving and disposing of certain types of asbestos requires a special licence. A licence that Marc Bairstow doesn't have. As we already know - Flytipping is bad. But Flytipping asbestos is also dangerous.
Meanwhile, back in the house, we paid Marc Bairstow his £130 and he left. But he was gone and not forgotten. Remember the tracker we planted in the rubbish?
Well, it was busy sending a signal to a website which allowed us to follow the rubbish as it moved. When the signal stopped, we would know that the rubbish had stopped - and be able to find out if it had been fly-tipped or not.
Matt and Dan set off after Marc Bairstow's truck, and after a quick stop when our friendly fly-tipper appeared to load more stuff on to the back of his truck and an hour or two of tracking, Bairstow finally pulled up outside a pub.
At 7pm, the signal started up. We already knew that Bairstow's normal MO was to dump at nightfall and it looked like he'd just stopped at an industrial estate.
After waiting for him to move off, we pulled up to take a look. There was no doubt that it was our rubbish - the chair, the ladder, the drawer and the upside down TV - because the Smartwater confirmed it.
But there was more rubbish there than we gave to Marc Bairstow. Much more. Among the building rubble were some suspicious looking corrugated panels. Surely they couldn't be asbestos... could they?
With our panels safely packed under plastic sheeting, we asked Sean Nutley from Silverdell - one of the UK's biggest asbestos removal companies - to take a look. He noted,
"You've got asbestos cement roof sheeting broken debris sheeting containing crysatile white asbestos."
Although the risks are relatively low with asbestos in this form, it is still a hazardous waste product. We asked Sean what should be done with that kind of asbestos? He replied,
"The asbestos regulations proscribe a certain process that means that you can remove this safely. Things like controlled removal using suppressants; dust suppression, careful bagging. It's really about careful removal and bagging it up into a contained environment."
He added that it could take cost as much as £1000 to clear up the mess left by Bairstow - money that will come straight from the taxpayer's pocket.
So we decided to confront Marc Bairstow. Armed with a church, a pile of rubbish and a stooge dressed as a vicar, we installed a raft of secret cameras ready to capture his every move. And after Bairstow turned up at 2pm, he negotiated with our 'vicar' the cost of removing some unslightly pipes.
"How do you want to do it, Father, would it be cheque or cash... Cash is it? Obviously it will be cheaper for you, I can lose the VAT."
Although the vicar didn't take Bairstow's confession, Matt was keen to do so and confronted him about the fly-tipping, the asbestos and the lack of respect for churchyards.
After we finished filming, Southampton Council brought a prosecution against Bairstow. Last month, a judge jailed him for two years - noting that he'd been blatantly tipping over a long period of time, and deliberately disregarding the law for financial gain.
So not only has Bairstow taken his place in our rogues' gallery. He's also found himself... behind bars.
A rogue who makes haste with your waste...
Expensive because it costs us ALL around £100,000 a day to clear up and messy because it blights streets in towns and cities across the UK. The countryside, too...
(Do you have something to say about this story? Tell us what you think by emailing us here. Don't forget to include 'Fly Tipping' in the subject line. Watchdog will publish a selection of viewers' comments underneath each story, both throughout and after the programme is on air. Please remember to include your name as you would like to see it published).
There are more than a million reports of illegally dumped rubbish every year - one every 12 seconds. Tyres, furniture, building rubble. You name it, it's been dumped.
So who's refusing to dispose of our refuse properly? We went to the south coast to meet Mr. Marc Bairstow. He's known to the authorities in Southampton for being a fly-tipper, and has dumped all over the city for months. But one of his regular haunts has really got the residents riled...
Martin Petch is the warden at the Holy Trinity Church in Millbrook in west Southampton, where they've had a few messy visitors of late. Describing what the average visitor to his churchyard might see, he said,
"... An assortment of materials from house clearances; building materials, and rubbish, toys. You name it, it was all there... it was quite a considerable amount and it took several days to clear in the end.
"Really, it's hitting community at its lowest ebb. People mourning, coming to visit graves, people going to worship and they were greeted with site of rubbish. So it was really quite appalling."
Describing the financial impact of fly-tipping on the church and the community, he added,
"It's cost us in the order of £2000, which we can ill afford."
Marc Bairstow isn't just known for fly-tipping - he's the scourge of the city on the Solent. In 2005, he featured in the local papers 'Crack a crime for Easter campaign' where he was wanted for spitting blood and racial abuse, aggravated assault and criminal damage. And he's been linked to fly tips all across the county. Needless to say, he doesn't have a Waste Carriers Licence - a document issued by the Environment Agency which means you can take away other people's rubbish. If you don't have one for you and your car, doing so is illegal.
We 'invited' Marc Bairstow around to a house in Southampton, sprinkled with secret cameras in order to film him as he collected a pile of rubbish from us. The rubbish was sprayed with a clever glow-in-the-dark spray called Smartwater - it's invisible to the naked eye but it shows up when you shine a UV light across it. We also planted a tracker so we can follow the rubbish.
After Marc Bairstow arrived, our researcher asked him how much it would cost to get rid of our stuff. He replied, "About 130... "
Not a bad rate for the job. So far, so good. But then, Marc shared the details of a disposal job he'd just carried out, mentioning that he'd "charged... nearly 800 on that asbestos."
Asbestos. That's not good. Breathing in asbestos fibres can be highly dangerous and is responsible for around 4000 deaths in the UK every year. Moving and disposing of certain types of asbestos requires a special licence. A licence that Marc Bairstow doesn't have. As we already know - Flytipping is bad. But Flytipping asbestos is also dangerous.
Meanwhile, back in the house, we paid Marc Bairstow his £130 and he left. But he was gone and not forgotten. Remember the tracker we planted in the rubbish?
Well, it was busy sending a signal to a website which allowed us to follow the rubbish as it moved. When the signal stopped, we would know that the rubbish had stopped - and be able to find out if it had been fly-tipped or not.
Matt and Dan set off after Marc Bairstow's truck, and after a quick stop when our friendly fly-tipper appeared to load more stuff on to the back of his truck and an hour or two of tracking, Bairstow finally pulled up outside a pub.
At 7pm, the signal started up. We already knew that Bairstow's normal MO was to dump at nightfall and it looked like he'd just stopped at an industrial estate.
After waiting for him to move off, we pulled up to take a look. There was no doubt that it was our rubbish - the chair, the ladder, the drawer and the upside down TV - because the Smartwater confirmed it.
But there was more rubbish there than we gave to Marc Bairstow. Much more. Among the building rubble were some suspicious looking corrugated panels. Surely they couldn't be asbestos... could they?
With our panels safely packed under plastic sheeting, we asked Sean Nutley from Silverdell - one of the UK's biggest asbestos removal companies - to take a look. He noted,
"You've got asbestos cement roof sheeting broken debris sheeting containing crysatile white asbestos."
Although the risks are relatively low with asbestos in this form, it is still a hazardous waste product. We asked Sean what should be done with that kind of asbestos? He replied,
"The asbestos regulations proscribe a certain process that means that you can remove this safely. Things like controlled removal using suppressants; dust suppression, careful bagging. It's really about careful removal and bagging it up into a contained environment."
He added that it could take cost as much as £1000 to clear up the mess left by Bairstow - money that will come straight from the taxpayer's pocket.
So we decided to confront Marc Bairstow. Armed with a church, a pile of rubbish and a stooge dressed as a vicar, we installed a raft of secret cameras ready to capture his every move. And after Bairstow turned up at 2pm, he negotiated with our 'vicar' the cost of removing some unslightly pipes.
"How do you want to do it, Father, would it be cheque or cash... Cash is it? Obviously it will be cheaper for you, I can lose the VAT."
Although the vicar didn't take Bairstow's confession, Matt was keen to do so and confronted him about the fly-tipping, the asbestos and the lack of respect for churchyards.
After we finished filming, Southampton Council brought a prosecution against Bairstow. Last month, a judge jailed him for two years - noting that he'd been blatantly tipping over a long period of time, and deliberately disregarding the law for financial gain.
So not only has Bairstow taken his place in our rogues' gallery. He's also found himself... behind bars.
A rogue who makes haste with your waste...