A WOMAN has been fined after dumping a huge heap of revolting rubbish on private land.

Tracey Puttick discarded the putrid pile of soiled nappies, dog poo and more less than a mile from her Hailsham home in August last year, leaving the landowner to clear up her mess.

The 35-year-old has now been ordered to pay £372 in costs by Wealden County Council.

The waste was found in Mill Road last summer, just a short drive from her home in Halley Park.

As an investigation into the incident progressed, Puttick was asked to attend a series of appointments with Wealden District Council intended to provide her with the opportunity to explain how her rubbish had come to be dumped on a stranger’s land.

She failed to attend all of these. Puttick was then called before Hastings Magistrates but again failed to turn up at the court room, further delaying her sentencing.

A verdict was finally delivered on September 15, when she was fined £40, ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £2 and told she owed £300 to Wealden District Council to cover costs connected to the flytipping incident.

Cllr Roy Galley, a Wealden cabinet member with responsibility for waste management, said: “Everyone who produces rubbish, from tradesmen to householders, has a legal duty to make sure their rubbish is disposed of in the correct manner.

“If you are using someone else to take it away, you must only use registered waste carriers.

“We should all pay attention to this. Only by doing this will the amount of rubbish flytipped in our beautiful district will be greatly reduced.”

Though this incident preceded the coronavirus lockdown, flytipping across Sussex and the UK has been seen to rise dramatically since the precautionary measures were put in place.

In May, researchers from the universities of Southampton and Portsmouth recorded a 300 per cent rise in rubbish dumping within rural communities since Boris Johnson announced the unprecedented restrictions.

In Brighton and Hove, flytipping more than doubled after household waste sites were closed in March, a report going before the council’s environment, transport and sustainability committee tomorrow revealed.

Cityclean recorded 680 tonnes of flytipped rubbish across the city between March 17 and July 31... a 117 per cent increase on the same period from the previous year.

Household waste sites reopened in May, but despite this rates of rubbish-dumping remained high.