If you think that sounds like the start to a piece of clichéd fiction you would probably be right, but this really happened …

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In broad daylight, in the middle of yesterday afternoon, a small time builder pulled off the road that runs by our smallholding and tipped a load of rubble into one of our field gateways!

Unfortunately for them, two of my sons were working nearby and spotted them! Together with another young man who was working with them, they jumped into their landrover and gave chase, pursuing them all the way into a cul-de-sac in a Leicester housing estate.

The situation could have turned very ugly at this point as two of the three fly tippers became very aggressive and my boys were ready to stand their ground. Fortunately, they’d had the presence of mind to ring the police during the pursuit and although the boys in blue had yet to arrive on the scene, once this fact was mentioned, the boss immediately capitulated and agreed to clean up the mess.

I was really glad I was out when all this happened so was oblivious to the drama. Not so their poor dad! Due to mobile phones, he was fully aware of what was going on and obviously worried about what might happen.

True to their word, the fly tippers returned this morning and cleaned up the mess, but the more I think of it, the angrier I feel.

When asked why they had dumped the load in our gateway instead of disposing it at the nearby tip, (less than 3 miles away), they said they had a long way to go and it was slowing them down!

The fact that their “problem,” was dumped on someone else’s doorstep to deal with seems not to have occurred to them. For those of us that live in the country, fly tippers are a social scourge and in my opinion, apart from being made to clean up their mess, they should be publicly flogged, marched through their neighbourhood with a sign around their necks saying, “I’m a rubbish fly-tipper!”

Instead, they’ll probably get counselling and free passes to the local tip! Bring back hanging I say!