Large amount of rubbish dumped on North York Moors between Castleton and Commondale

Joanne Sutherland, who lives in Commondale, emailed the Whitby Gazette to say she found this “shocking” fly tipping at the top of Sandhill Bank between the picturesque villages of Commondale and Castleton.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I drove up the bank to go to work, I felt very shocked,” she said.

"A villager reported it to the council, I have to say it was very promptly removed.”

Enraged residents of the area took to the Stronger Together Castleton Facebook page to comment on the rubbish with one saying: “Absolute disgrace, surely somebody must have seen them tipping this amount of rubbish?”

Another said: “Disgrace how can people be so disrespectful” while other comments included: “I hope they went through it and maybe got some identification of any kind!” and “I really hope they find out who done this – absolutely shocking.”

North Yorkshire Council say such incidents of fly tipping in the national park will not be tolerated.

Debbie Swales, Managing Director of Revival North Yorkshire, a community anchor organisation, added: “It's absolutely disgusting that someone would leave that amount of rubbish in an area of outstanding natural beauty.”

The authority’s head of waste and street scene, Harry Briggs, said: “We were made aware of a large amount of mixed waste which had been dumped with the North York Moors National Park, near Commondale, on November 21.

“Our local recycling and waste enforcement team investigated the matter and arranged for the waste to be removed.

"This was completed the following day.

“Unfortunately, such clean-ups are done at taxpayers’ expense and investigations are currently under way to try and identify those responsible for leaving the waste.

“North Yorkshire is a beautiful area in which to live and incidents like this are a blot on the landscape.

“We will not tolerate dumping in the National Park or anywhere else in the county and we would urge people to come forward with information should they see anyone doing so.”