NFU in the media: Rural crime

2021

May

NFU Deputy President Stuart Roberts wrote an opinion piece for the Daily Express on rural crime. The piece, which featured in the print paper, discussed the NFU's recent rural crime survey.

Sky lanterns

An NFU-led coalition of 18 organisations sent a letter to Defra undersecretary Rebecca Pow calling for a national ban on sky lanterns. The Times covered the issue as an exclusive and published a print article, with an opinion piece by Robert Crampton published the following day.

Hare coursing

The Telegraph and the Mirror published articles on the effects, both financial and mental, of hare coursing on rural communities. The Telegraph mentioned the NFU's call for police and crime commissioners to put rural policing at the forefront of their agenda ahead of the May elections.

April

Welsh Senedd elections

The BBC covered the Welsh Senedd elections from a farming perspective outlining the things that matter to the sector. The article includes quotes from NFU Cymru next generation forum member Hefin Jones who described the influential factors on his voting decisions.

Rural Crime Survey

The NFU's Rural Crime Survey garnered a wide variety of coverage across regional outlets, the survey revealed that rural crime had cost the average victim £5,100, with one in 10 respondents putting the bill at £10,000 or more.

The BBC and ITV included NFU quotes while East Midlands Today interviewed regional communications adviser James Peck about the issue where he stressed that more joined-up action is needed to prevent it.

The survey also featured on the front page of the Yorkshire Post. The article covers the NFU and Countryside Alliance's calls for candidates in next month’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections to put rural crime at the forefront of their campaigns. North East regional director Adam Bedford is quoted in the article.

March

BBC Panorama focused on fly-tipping, and the prosecution of it, with a feature, called Rubbish Dump Britain. The production team were briefed by NFU Deputy President Stuart Roberts and Hertfordshire county adviser Ros David, and filmed with NFU member George Williams from the Enville Estate in Staffordshire.

2020

December

Brand new cyber security advice

The Daily Mail, and ITV News have reported that the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has worked with the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) to create its first online safety guidance for the farming sector, which includes advice on protecting farms against malware and dealing with scam messages and phone calls. The NCSC said the sector needed to take more action around security, as statistics show an increase in reports of cyber attacks against the farming community.

August

NFU Mutual rural crime report

NFU Deputy President Stuart Roberts and NFU Vice President Tom Bradshaw were both interviewed on Sky News to explain the impact of rural crime on farmers' mental wellbeing and finances.

July

Fly-tipping focus

Sky News focused on fly-tipping in a package featuring NFU member Andrew Ward and Lincolnshire county adviser Rhonda Thompson explaining the dangers of the rubbish to farmers and the general public.

The Guardian reported the rise of fly-tipping cases in recent weeks, with NFU environment forum chairman Phil Jarvis highlighting the serious problems for wildlife and water courses.

May

NFU member Olly Harrison featured on a BBC Countryfile feature on fly-tipping, highlighting the rubbish that has been dumped in the countryside. Watch from around 11 mins 30 secs. Olly Harrison on BBC Countryfile 17.5.20_73511

March

NFU Deputy President was interviewed live on BBC’s Crimewatch Roadshow, discussing the problem of fly-tipping across the country, the different types of incidents, and the impact on farmers.

February

BBC Breakfast interviewed NFU member Edward Ford on his farm in Essex where he explained that fly-tipping impacts farmers’ ability to produce food and care for the environment.

Edward Ford - BBC coverage on fly-tipping_72141 Mr Ford also featured on 5 Live Breakfast where he said clearing up these loads can cost thousands of pounds.

There is also an article on BBC News here which explains that organised criminal gangs are often behind large scale fly-tipping and the NFU is quoted saying the situation is a nightmare for farmers.

Journalist Michael Crick has also investigated the blight of fly-tipping in a video for the Daily Mail+ and speaks to Essex member George Young who said the situation has got worse over recent years.

The NFU's work for members on fly-tipping

A staggering 1,072,000 fly-tipping incidents took place in England alone in 2019. Nearly two thirds (62%) of fly-tips involve household waste, but, more worryingly, the figures show that incidents involving ‘significant, (or) multi-loads’ of waste continue to rise.

Not only can fly-tipping be costly and time-consuming to remove, it can be dangerous to human health, wildlife and livestock, bespoil our treasured landscapes and, in some cases, pollute watercourses and contaminate land. When incidents of fly-tipping take place on private land, it’s also the landowner’s responsibility to remove the illegally dumped waste.

Case study: Edward Ford

Farmer Edward Ford (below) grows combinable crops on 1,600 acres in Brentwood, Essex, just a mile from the M25, where he is witnessing a stark increase in instances of fly-tipping.

Ed Ford_67158

“We’ve been dealing with fly-tipping for decades, but in the past four or so years it has gotten substantially worse and has become a lot more commercial,” he said.

“It used to just be a white van man doing up someone’s bathroom dumping his rubbish in a field, but now we’re getting articulated lorries with products that can’t be recycled.

“They take out all the wood, top soil, concrete – anything that can be used – and just dump tonnes of rubbish consisting of fibres and dust.”

As well as the cost of the clean-up, he’s also seeing his insurance premium increase, while dealing with these incidents takes up a considerable amount of his time and effort.

He added: “What we need is a joined-up approach to tackling this problem from the police, local councils and Environment Agency, because, at the moment, there is none. When we report an incident, we just get passed from one to the other – no-one wants to take any real responsibility.

“Operation Galileo has been really successful in tackling hare-coursing, and now we really need something similar for fly-tipping.”

This is what the NFU is doing on fly-tipping...

The NFU is asking for a single reporting mechanism to be developed so that farmers and landowners only have to report a fly-tipping incident once. Currently, victims may have to report incidents to multiple authorities, which is time-consuming and frustrating. The mechanism would need to ensure that the correct authority is informed, and feedback is available.

We would like government and the waste sector to raise awareness about the ‘Householder Duty of Care’. Householders need to be made more aware that responsibility for any of their waste is maintained through to its final disposal point – not when they pass it to a third party. Too much householder waste falls into the hands of third parties who then fly-tip that material.

The NFU wants all parties (local authorities/ police/ landowners/ the Environment Agency) to work together on this issue including prevention, clean-up and prosecution. In some areas this relationship works well, however, we want consistency in approach across the whole country.

The NFU is calling on the Magistrates’ Association to ensure its members receive training on offences which affect rural communities, in particular the requirements of the Environmental Offences Definitive Guideline, so that they are able to make full use of of sentencing powers.

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Published: 12/05/2021 at 15:49

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