A MASSIVE mound of flytipped rubbish dumped at the entrance to the Essex Horse and Pony Protection Society needed two council teams to clear it.

Staff at the society, based on Pitsea Hall Lane, Basildon, were shocked to see the huge pile of dumped rubbish which consisted of planks of wood and general waste.

After initially visiting the site on Monday, it was deemed there was too much rubbish for just one council team to clear, with two teams returning on Thursday.

Sue Allery, chairman of the society, said: “It really is disappointing.

“We couldn’t quite believe it when we saw it, it is a huge pile.

“I will never understand why people feel the need to flytip, but we have managed to get photos of the van responsible, and we also rummaged through the rubbish and we found details of where the rubbish has come from.

“So hopefully there will be a conviction.”

Initially, the council angered the society with a response stating it was not council owned land, despite the society renting it from them, and refusing to help.

This was then retracted and site was cleared last week.

Councillor Kevin Blake, chairman of the leisure, culture and environment committee, said: “The council received a report of flytipping from the Essex Horse and Pony Protection Society and attended the site on Monday to carry out an inspection.

“An automated response was initially sent indicating the flytip was on land outside of Basildon Council’s ownership but this was quickly corrected and two teams returned to the site on Thursday morning to clear the waste.

“If the society are able to provide the council with any evidence it has gathered to identify the perpetrators we will investigate in order to bring those responsible to justice.

“We are committed to cracking down on environmental crime. This is why we recently invested in two extra street scene enforcement and education officers and £10,000 into a CCTV trial.”