A man has celebrated the birthday of a fly tip - ten years after he reported it to the council. 

On Tuesday, the Epping Forest Guardian visited a large mound of rubbish piled up in a wooded area alongside Clays Lane in Loughton with Steve Ward.

It has been there for ten years, so we decided to hold a birthday party for it with a birthday cake, candles and a paty horn.

After moving to the town in 2002, the retired pharmaceutical salesman would regularly take his daughter Aisling to the woodland.

In 2008 the pair stumbled upon a nasty surprise.

Mr Ward said: "I used to bring my daughter over here to look for tadpoles and newts. To pick up acorns.

"It is typical wild forest land. There's a pond down the bottom.

"As part of a school project we came up when she was eight. Unfortunately we found this big pile of rubbish.

"I told her to email the council and she did."

 

Epping Forest District Council emailed back to the eight year old explaining that the land was private.

"They came back and said they didn't know whose land it is," Mr Ward said.

"I think the council are so frightened with interfering with someone else's land."

Fast forward ten years and - aside from Mr Ward retiring and Miss Ward leaving school and starting her first job as a legal assistant - little has changed.

The mound of rubbish is still there, just slightly bigger.

It now contains several large sofas, plastic boxes, bits of broken glass and licence plates.

 
 

A spokesperson for the council said its responsibility was for fly tips on public highways and council house land, not private property.

They added: "We believe that this particular fly tip is on private land and so the landowner has the responsibility to clear the waste.

"The Council can provide advice to assist landowners and it is important that landowners who are victims of fly-tipping, don’t employ a rogue trader to clear the waste, as they will simply fly-tip it elsewhere.

"The Council can enforce removal of fly-tipped waste in some circumstances so we will have another look at this one to see if anything has changed and whether or not the Council can, and should consider pursuing further action to get the waste removed.”

 

The fly tip's birthday coincides with Essex County Council's #Crimenottocare week, which urges rubbish owners to dump it responsibly.