I saw the picture (Jan 10) of the rubbish dumped in Cranes Farm Road, Basildon, and it set me thinking.

Do you need a licence to "tip" as a trader and how much does each load cost to tip?

I tried Basildon Council website to no avail. Everything to do with waste or recycling states "no trade waste".

The Essex County Council site gave the same result.

So, if I wanted to start a rubbish clearance business, neither council helped.

The report identified this rubbish as household and domestic furniture, materials which can be taken to Pitsea tip for free.

Assuming the householder has a car, this lot would take at least six trips to the tip with a full boot each time. That's six trips burning petrol and producing pollutants.

Many people would prefer to pay a man with a van say £30 to take it away in one go. But no! A man in a van is not allowed at the local recycling centre. He must go to a special centre and pay. Six car loads free - one van load you pay.

As a consequence of this policy many drivers or small businesses give way to the temptation to "flytip".

The Echo has previously reported that it costs councils (that is us) many thousands of pounds to clear up after flytippers.

Surely, if the fees were scrapped for vehicles up to a certain size, or for waste clearly coming from domestic premises, there would be no incentive to flytip, councils would save money and the environment would be much cleaner.

Chris Wood
Larkswood Road
Corringham