A POPULAR beauty spot in West Devon has been the latest target in a string of recent fly-tipping incidents in the area.

On Sunday evening a large pile of what looked to be household waste was dumped in the Quarry Car Park at Burrator Reservoir.

There have been a number of similar incidents over the past few months, including builders rubbish dumped at Plasterdown and several black bin bags and a number of computers dumped close to Ditsworthy Warren House, the remote house which featured in Stephen Spielberg’s film ‘War Horse’.

Cllr Keith Scrivener, of Burrator Parish Council, said: ‘This is truly idiotic. The recent dumping at Ditsworthy Warren House must have been harder to achieve than taking it to the council’s recycling tip. Despoiling a beauty spot like Burrator is criminal in every sense of the word.

‘We can only assume that fly-tipping is escalating because people are often charged to take certain types of waste to the tip. Perhaps that policy needs re-thinking.’

Neil Reeves, countryside and angling manager for South West Lakes Trust which manages Burrator Reservoir, said: ‘This is the second occurrence of fly-tipping in the last month in the quarry car park at Burrator Reservoir. Beautiful places such as this are not dumping grounds for other people’s rubbish. We deal with plastic bottles and bags of dog mess on a daily basis, which take up valuable staff time and resources, all of which could be used for valuable conservation work.

‘This fly tipping is just mindless pollution of the environment which could harm people or wildlife, which we will now have to dispose of at a cost to the charity.

‘South West Lakes Trust works hard for the benefit of the public, wildlife and historic environment at Burrator Reservoir. We would welcome any information that anyone has relating to this criminal act. We are currently working with partner agencies to examine the rubbish for evidence before arranging its removal.’

West Devon sector Inspector Mark Sloman said that despite fly tipping being a criminal offence the incident should be reported in the first instance to the local authority or environmental health.

Insp Sloman said: ‘We are very much aware of the recent incidents of fly tipping and have been working with the local council. It is anti-social behaviour and it is a crime but it is usually dealt with by environmental health. People should report an incident of fly tipping to their local authority or environmental health first.

‘The local neighbourhood beat team is aware of the recent incidents and will be increasing its patrols on Dartmoor and working with the council and environmental health to identify the offenders.’

l Rubbish dumped in the car park at Burrator Reservoir.