A fed-up farmer says clearing up fly-tipping on his land has cost him thousands of pounds - as residents’ concerns grow about the impact on the Garden of England.

David Figgis, of Hernhill near Faversham, says this year alone he has seen sofas, windows, insulation and builder’s rubble and metal discarded on the roads on the outskirts of the market town.

The latest offence is a pile of asbestos, dumped on land next to his farm just off the A299 Thanet Way heading towards the countryside villages of Fostall and Dargate – though the area is public property.

Despite multiple reports and complaints submitted since it was first discovered in mid-July, no action has yet been taken despite SBC admitting it is aware of the flytip.

The Hernhill parish councillor says last year, clearing up illegal waste dumps on his land cost him up to £10,000 and noted the nearest appropriate firm to dispose of it now it had been dumped was more than three hours away in Peterborough.

He told KentOnline: “This asbestos here will need to be picked up by a specialist contractor and obviously because it's asbestos, you shouldn't touch it, you shouldn't go near it.

“Last year, we had a similar mound dumped on the ground that was ours, so that was my bill. This one is the whole taxpayer's bill.

“The closing of tips makes it much harder.

“You can't take a commercial vehicle into a tip, so what do you do?

“Remember also that somebody has charged somebody for moving that legitimately, so probably somebody is innocent and has paid somebody who's not so innocent lots of money.”

Fellow Hernhill resident Peter Wilson added: “What must people think of the Garden of Kent when it has a pile of asbestos on it?

“That's what upsets people. They're very proud of the area they live in, and there are regular little pits of rubbish.”

Many countryside roads in Swale have been covered in both fly-tips and general litter.

Though SBC more than doubled its fine for guilty fly-tippers earlier this year, the £1,000 penalty has not deterred all criminals from discarding unwanted goods.

Last year, the council issued almost 1,100 fixed penalty notices (FPN) for waste-related offences.

The proceeds are used to support environment-related functions, with a focus on tackling fly-tipping and littering.

This includes CCTV cameras in fly-tipping hotspots, additional litter bins, clean-up efforts and funds for the litter enforcement officers who actively combat littering.

The funding also stretched to Op Assist, a joint operation between Kent Police’s rural task force and Swale Borough Council.

Cllr Rich Lehmann, who is on both SBC and Kent County Council, told KentOnline he is keen to see more done.

“From a council point of view, we are trying to do more and more all the time,” he said.

“We recently put out a story about how we got some funding for three new CCTV cameras and unfortunately, a lot of the time, CCTV cameras are the best way to do it but they're easier to deploy in urban areas because if you've got a lamppost or something, you can attach them to that as a source of power and also to make them secure.

“I would certainly like to do more for rural fly-tipping but it's not the easiest thing to tackle.

“I think what we've got is a rise in questionable behaviour by some people who pretend to be reputable waste transfer merchants who take money from people, take their rubbish and then just dump it because that maximises the profit they can make on that.”

A Swale Borough Council spokesman, said: “Due to the size and nature of the fly-tipping, we’ve had to find a specialist service who can remove the waste safely. We have now found one and we’re currently confirming a date for the work to take place.

“We’re committed to keep working hard to tackle fly-tipping, and have increased the levels of fixed penalty notices we can issue to offenders to up to £1,000.

“We are also continuing to work with partner agencies such as Kent Police on operations targeting potential fly-tippers, and will prosecute offenders when we catch them.”

A cost for the removal has not yet been confirmed.