Published: 16 June 2025
Press Release
From Highnam Parish Council
Illegal Tipping at Highnam
Highnam Parish Council publicly calls upon the Environment Agency to take immediate legal
action to bring about a cessation of long standing illegal tipping on a site to the rear of Over
Farm off the A40.
The Parish Council first alerted the Agency to this activity well over five years ago, and has been regularly lobbying the Agency ever since to take effective legal action. Despite
assurances that the matter is with the Agency’s legal team to determine the best course of
action, nothing has happened.
In the meantime the extent of tipping has been significantly increasing totally unabated.
Fleets of lorries deposit builders’ rubble and noxious materials on site on a daily basis,
despoiling the countryside, causing immense environmental damage, destroying vegetation,
encroaching onto the nearby Gloucester and Hereford Canal, creating noxious fumes from
regular site burning, and endangering the lives of members’ of the public walking or cycling
along the adjoining roadway by the passage of heavy vehicles who pay no heed to public
safety. Such was the extent of burning from the site that on the evening of 11 June
Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Services were called out and local residents were advised to
close their windows as a result of noxious fumes escaping from site.
The Parish Council’s patience has worn out. We demand immediate action be taken by the
Environment Agency together, where appropriate, with Tewkesbury Borough Council and
Gloucestershire County Council.