Council highways team 'encouraging' lay-by fly-tipping

Twm Owen Local Democracy Reporter

Lay-bys used by a council highways teams for storing materials are attracting fly-tipping a councillor has said. 

Photographs show black bags, rubble, building materials and other waste dumped at a pull-in in a remote area of the countryside. 

Mommouthshire County Council also regularly leaves tarmac, soil and other materials at roadside areas which it has said are depots rather than lay-bys. 

Mitchel Troy and Trellech councillor Jayne McKenna said she feared the council was encouraging fly tipping by using the lay-bys and also questioned the safety or large lorries loading and unloading along fast roads.

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"Unsafe"

The Conservative member said lay-bys at Dingestow and Greenlane, Trellech as “regularly used for fly tipping” when she highlighted the issue at the council’s March meeting. 

She asked: “Why is this being exacerbated by the council dumping tarmac, soil and other materials? This is not only unsightly but unsafe, the lay-by near Skew Bridge is on a 60 mile per hour road with little space for lorries and workers to unload materials.” 

Catrin Maby, the Labour cabinet member responsible for highways, thanked Cllr McKenna for “highlighting an issue that needs to be addressed”, but said the areas aren’t lay-bys. 

She said: “It wasn’t what I thought it was. Initially I was looking at this thinking ‘how is this fly tipping happening?’. I wasn’t aware Monmouthshire County Council have a large number of road side depots, that’s what they are historically they are old road side depots and not in fact lay-bys.” 

She said the council’s material isn’t dumped but stored and used for operational purposes with the locations registered with Natural Resources Wales for storage or transfer.

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Reliance

Cllr Maby added the highway team is “slowly reducing reliance” on the sites and said the council will look into preventing fly tipping and making clear the purpose of the road side depots. She also said she would consider the safety point raised. 

Cllr McKenna said she had been unaware they were official depots and suggested signs could be used to highlight their purpose. 

Photographs shared by the councillor show fly-tipping in the area on Groesonen Road, known as the old Raglan to Monmouth road, which runs parallel to the A40, between the services and Dingestow.