AN elderly woman and her caring daughter say they have faced difficulty in leaving their home for a week after a heap of rubbish was dumped outside their home last Thursday.

The fly tipped rubble near St Andrew's Road in St Andrews Major is yet to be removed (as of Wednesday evening), while the Vale of Glamorgan Council says it is aware of the dumped rubbish and "will work with residents" to resolve the issue.

The rubbish, which is on a private road, is the latest in a spate of incidents in and around Dinas Powys in recent months, and St Andrews Major residents say they believe more could be done to try and prevent recurrences.

Residents believe the latest incident to have occurred in the early hours of Thursday morning, and have had to work together to move the “very heavy and disgusting” dump from the middle of the lane so they can travel to and from their homes.

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And they say – a week on – there are growing concerns the rubbish will remain there for some time.

Ian Brooks, who lives near the dump but isn’t directly affected, said: “It’s nothing new. I live at the top of St Andrews Road and we regularly see vans travel past with heaps of rubbish, and then they come back the other way completely empty a few minutes later.

“A farmer here has had it happen to him a couple of times.”

Mr Brooks says the worsening fly-tipping has coincided with price hikes at recycling centres and coronavirus restrictions, which he believes has caused a “black market” of littering.

Penarth Times: Residents say St Andrew's Road has become a fly-tipping hotspotResidents say St Andrew's Road has become a fly-tipping hotspot

“Some of this is blatant criminality and is totally wrong. But they know they can get away with it, so what we do you do?," he added.

“As residents perhaps we need to try and do more to make sure the people we’re passing our waste to are legitimate, by checking for licenses when someone does offer to collect rubbish.”

A woman, who wishes not to be named, was blocked in until neighbours came to help move the rubble to the side of the road over the weekend.

She said: “It’s infuriating. It was found initially by our neighbour early on Thursday who had to go and collect his sick daughter from university and was blocked in.

Penarth Times: The rubbish has now been moved to the side of the roadThe rubbish has now been moved to the side of the road

“Then it was moved a little by another neighbour who had to get to work and was late because he had to spend half-an-hour moving it the best he could.

“It’s such a health hazard because there are bottles that have been drunk from and all sorts.

“We can now just about get in and out, but with difficulty. Lots of people here rely on deliveries in lockdown and it was virtually impossible to get those deliveries up here.

“Our concern is the Vale council might say it’s on private property, so we have to get rid of it. But why should we have to pay someone to take it away when it’s nothing to do with us?

“It’s happened before but never as bad as this.”

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A Vale of Glamorgan Council spokesman said: “The Council is aware of this instance of fly-tipping, which is on privately-owned land, and we will work with the landowner to address it.

“Our environmental enforcement officers regularly patrol known fly-tipping hotspots and respond to any reports relating to this offence.

“Fly-tipping is a crime and an issue we take extremely seriously. Anyone found to be committing this type of offence could face serious consequences, which include being issued with a fixed penalty notice, prosecution, fines of up to £50,000 or even imprisonment.”