TWO Ipswich men have been cautioned for flytipping – after confessing to their actions in a letter.The pair had helped clear a neighbour's garden but had dumped the rubbish in Church Lane, Sproughton.

TWO Ipswich men have been cautioned for flytipping - after confessing to their actions in a letter.

The pair had helped clear a neighbour's garden but had dumped the rubbish in Church Lane, Sproughton.

When Babergh District Council launched an investigation into the flytipping of household and garden waste at the Anglian Water sewage site last year, the pair held their hands up and confessed their shame, claiming they did not know what to do with the rubbish.

The pair said in their letter: "In assisting a neighbour in the clearance of a garden, we found ourselves with a van full of rubbish. We didn't know what to do. So we ignorantly dumped it for a quick and easy solution

"We would like to offer our sincere apologies for our actions. This was the first and only time we have ever done this. We are both deeply ashamed of what we did."

"We have learned our lesson and realise this sort of action is unacceptable."

Gifford Lewis, Babergh's environmental health manager, said: "I hope this serves as a warning to other members of the public - dumping waste is illegal and an eyesore and the council is keen to make an example of those who dispose of waste in this way.

"Although a caution was issued this time, there will be occasions when the severity of an incident is such that we will go straight for a prosecution."

The entrance to the Anglian Water sewage works in Church Lane, Sproughton has become a flytipping blackspot and last year became so bad that a special clear up had to be arranged to get rid of 20 tonnes of rubbish.

The Evening Star ,which has been a staunch campaigner against flytipping, has also discovered that in two separate incidents, rubbish - including asbestos - has recently been dumped in nearby Sproughton Road.

A spokesman for the district council said the rubbish in Sproughton Road is due to be cleared shortly, while a specialist contractor is being engaged to clear the asbestos.

This comes as new figures, released by a national flytipping database Flycapture, show rubbish is illegally dumped every seven minutes in the east of England and every 35 seconds across England and Wales.

Fly tipping costs £100 a minute to clear up and, in the second half of 2004, local authorities alone spent around £24 million clearing dumped waste.

What do you think about fly tipping? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk