Farmer incensed after environmental activists litter field

Campaign group Just Stop Oil has apologised to a Warwickshire farmer after environmental activists left a significant amount of litter on a field edge near Kingsbury Oil depot.

Dairy and arable farmer Charles Goadby was incensed to find discarded chairs, sleeping bags, plastic bottles and bags of rubbish in the hedgerow bordering one of his oilseed rape fields.

The litter was found piled up near a tunnel at the oil depot, where activists have held a number of demonstrations.

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Mr Goadby discovered the mess as he was spraying his crop earlier this week, and he took to social media to vent his frustration.

In a video posted on Twitter, he said: “How is this acceptable, people dumping crap over our British countryside, polluting it, destroying the countryside and putting our wildlife at risk with rubbish.”

My message to @JustStop_Oil pic.twitter.com/LOVyXAnBCF

— Charles Goadby (@thisfarmlife) September 20, 2022

Speaking to Farmers Weekly, Mr Goadby said: “You can see where they have hollowed out the hedge and done massive amounts of damage. Are they going to come and repair that damage and replant hedge saplings and re-establish this hedge?”

Mr Goadby said he was baffled by the hypocrisy of the activists, whose aim is to help clear up the environment by demanding the government halts future fossil fuel deals.

A spokesman for Just Stop Oil said: “The farmer is right to be angry. Just Stop Oil is sorry that the site was not cleaned up, this is now being organised.

“The area should have been cleaned, so that the land, people and wildlife are protected.”