A Carse of of Gowrie farmer feels action should be taken to prevent people fly-tipping on private land after he has been left to clear up broken asbestos sheets in one of his fields.
Jim Smith (64), who owns South Inchmichael Farm, near Errol, is having to deal with the mess left by people he says have a total disregard for private property.
His wife Sheila discovered the fly-tipping on her return from collecting the newspapers on Tuesday morning.
Mr Smith said, “It must have been dumped in the last 24 hours and probably during the night, when it is dark.
“There are bits of broken asbestos sheets, timber and parts of roof felt.
“It must have been people who carried out roof repairs and decided just to dump this stuff in one of my fields.”
He added, “I contacted SEPA (Scottish Environment Protection Agency) but they said as it is in private land the onus is on me to dispose and get rid of this stuff.
“This has never happened to me before I don’t know what to do with it.
“I feel that something should be done to stop people dumping stuff like this and wonder if someone may have seen these people as it is near a crossroads in Errol.”‘Spoils the countryside’Mr Smith said, “It seems to be the way society is going these days, which is very sad.
“I still don’t know what to do with the stuff apparently you have to wrap it in polythene if it’s asbestos.
“It’s so annoying as it spoils the countryside. The people who do these sort of things are not very nice.”
A SEPA spokeswoman confirmed Mr Smith would have to remove the asbestos and accompanying rubbish himself.
She said, “We did receive a phone call this morning about this incident and one of our officers went out to look at it.
“It was identified as broken cement asbestos but there was no evidence of origin of where it came from.
“It’s one of those unfortunate things. As it has been dumped on private land, Mr Smith will have to remove the asbestos.”
A Perth and Kinross Council spokesperson said, “We have not been in contact with Mr Smith about this matter. However we would concur with SEPA’s guidance where fly-tipping occurs on private land it is the landowner’s responsibility to remove the waste.
“We would advise anyone who wants to report fly-tipped waste to contact the national Dumb Dumpers hotline on 0845 2304090 or complete an online report form at www.dumbdumpers.org.”
A police spokesperson added, “We can confirm we have looked at this incident of fly-tipping and would appeal for anyone with information to contact us on 0300 111 2222.”