MORE than £1.5m is being earmarked to clear up a patch of land on a travellers site in Harlow – described as “dangerous” due to commercial scale fly tipping reports the Local Democracy Reporter.

Essex County Council, which owns and manages the Fern Hill Lane residential traveller site in Harlow has said a “huge volume” of fly tipped waste which has been unlawfully tipped is creating health and safety risks to existing residents and visitors to the site.

The site, off Commonside Road, was built with 23 pitches but has suffered from anti-social behaviour, organised crime, commercial scale fly tipping and fires.

The site was refurbished in 2017 with funding from the Homes and Communities Agency but that has not served to improve things, the county council said.

There are now only six pitches which are lawfully occupied. The remainder of the site has been degraded to such an extent that it is “dangerous, uninhabitable, and new licences are not being granted”.

Essex County Council has said the site cannot be closed because of the residents there now. Although work to address the problem of flytipping has had some successes, the ongoing fly-tipping and identification of those responsible is “problematic, the council said.

It adds there is now a huge volume of fly tipped waste which has been unlawfully tipped on the site and that is creating health and safety risks to existing residents and visitors to the site. This leaves the council at risk of action under legislation including the Public Health Act.