Letter: Councils Point to Each Other Over Reported Roadside Fly-tipping

Published on: 1 Feb, 2025
Updated on: 1 Feb, 2025

Fly-tipped waste A3-A31 slip road. Robert Shatwell

From Robert Shatwell

On November 16, 2024 I drove along the slip road, that runs from the A3 towards the A31 Hog’s Back, and saw three piles of fly-tipped rubbish. It appeared to consist of household waste, including fridge/freezers.

Due to traffic, I was unable to stop and search the rubbish for evidence of where it had come from but as a passenger I was able to take photos.

I reported the matter to Surrey County Council highways department on the November 18.  A day later I received two acknowledgement emails from SCC giving two totally different highways’ reference numbers.

As the rubbish was still there almost a month later on, December 16, I contacted SCC asking what and when they intended to do about it.   On December 17, I once again received two separate responses from SCC Highways, once again giving two separate reference numbers.

Weeks later more fly-tipping had occurred. Robert Shatwell

The second stated, “Guildford Borough Council is responsible as it is not a public highway matter so we have forwarded the matter to Guildford Borough Council.

On Wednesday (January 29, 2025) I received an email from Guildford Council asking, “How have we done?”

The next day, Thursday, I received an email response from GBC stating, “Due to speed of traffic on this road we are not able to close the road on an ad-hoc basis.   SCC highways are the only ones able to do this so we suggest you make a complaint to SCC highways department.

The complaint was originally made to SCC highways who said they were not responsible and I should pass it on to GBC. GBC now suggests I send a complaint to SCC Highways! But what’s the point? They have said they are not responsible.

So who the hell is responsible?  I pay my council tax and expect someone clears away this mess, which incidentally has now expanded to four piles of rubbish and had extra rubbish dumped on the original three.

As it would appear that no one feels responsible for clearing this rubbish then I do not feel responsible for paying my council tax.

What the hell do we pay our council tax for? Perhaps we should pay the already overpaid senior officers of both SCC and the local authority even more money because they seem to be responsible for nothing.   It makes me wonder what they do for their over-inflated salaries.

I am giving notice that until the rubbish is cleared by someone, perhaps a Chief Executive Officer, I will withhold my council tax.   I am a resident of Woking, to whom I am responsible for paying my council tax so I will let WBC fight GBC for my share of council tax that I am not responsible for paying.

The Guildford Dragon is forwarding this letter to SCC and GBC for comment.

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