Asbestos dumped at West End cemetery by fly-tippers

The fly-tippers left piles of rubbish, bin bags and roofing near the graves at West End.West End Parish Council faces a bill of about £650 for specialists to get rid of what they estimate to be almost a ton of debris dumped at the Quob Lane site.

Now chairman Neville Lovett has turned detective and vowed to speak to passers-by, trawl planning applications and search through the rubbish for clues, where safe to do so.

He has so far found a scout ribbon and an old picture of a woman and two boys in cub uniforms.

Councillor Lovett said: “It is disgusting. People who just don’t care and expect the taxpayer to bear the expense of their inadequacy.

“What if children had played in this? Lots of people experience problems in later life after being exposed to this.’’ He has reported this to the police and Eastleigh Borough Council and says he is determined to find out who did it and see them prosecuted.

His sentiments were echoed by funeral director Simon Waters, of Waters & Sons, who urged anyone with information to come forward.

He said: “This would be incredibly distressing for a family at what is already an emotional and stressful time.

“We try to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible on the day of a funeral and it is terrible that a person could be so disrespectful and deceitful as to use a place where people’s loved ones are buried as a tip.

“He went on to say the flytippers were exploiting the privacy the cemetery needs to get away with dumping rubbish.

Rev Brian Pickett of nearby St James Church: “It is disgusting that people would dump rubbish anywhere but the gate of a cemetery is even worse.’’ Earlier this year an investigation was launched after a fly-tipper dumped bricks, mattresses, old tyres and rubbish beside the graves at Holy Trinity Church at Millbrook, Southampton.