MP Gordon Henderson launched a stinging attack on Environment Agency officers in a public meeting about illegal cliff dumping.

The Tory MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey turned up at Eastchurch village hall on Tuesday to hear a presentation by enforcement team leader Daniel Kettridge and Alan Dengate, who has the title of waste crime and regulation industry engagement specialist.

The pair spent the night, aided by a wonky projector screen, telling a packed hall full of furious residents why they were powerless to stop a fleet of tipper trucks driving through the village every day to dump spoil over the cliffs.

Mr Henderson said: "I always get what you can't do, never what you are going to do. Why not get your people here every day for a month and then threaten the culprits with prosecution?"

When he was told the officers were short-staffed and didn't have any evidence, Mr Henderson replied: "I will stand up in court to say what is going on. Let's be honest, there are people making money from this environmental disaster as trucks go past every day.

He went on: "I have been promised you will take certain action. When is that going to happen?

"I refuse to accept the Environment Agency can't do anything. You say you haven't got the people to do it. I have spoken to your bosses, and to their bosses. If you don't have the resources you come to me and I'll make sure you get them.

"If you do have the resources, then do something with them!"

He did not seem best pleased when Mr Kettridge replied: "We are a government body. We are never going to have enough resources."

Mr Kettridge told the meeting there were only six investigators serving six million people in London and the south and they were working on 96 cases.

He explained that when they turned up wearing hi-vis jackets with Environment Agency on their backs the lorries stopped. One wag asked where he could buy the jackets. "There are quite a few of us prepared to wear those all day. That should stop the lorries," he said, to a round of applause.

There are two separate sites where spoil is being dumped over the cliffs, one at the junction of Surf Crescent and Third Avenue where a bungalow slipped over the edge in 2020 and one at the end of Warden Road. Both have insisted they are doing nothing illegal.

Mr Kettridge said there was no longer a U1 exemption certificate in force at Surf Crescent, revealing three had been revoked in November 2020 because of "unsuitable waste". A test on spoil carried out at the other location the day before the meeting had shown that operation was "compliant".

Residents complained that fleets of lorries have been damaging roads and houses and thundering through the village and narrow country roads from 5am, seven days a week, for the past two years.

Mr Kettridge infuriated many by saying the EA didn't have powers to stop lorries, unless they had police back-up, and admitted it was seldom worth taking culprits to court as they often carried on dumping regardless.

Several times, Eastchurch parish council chairman Kathleen Carter had to stop the often noisy meeting to allow speakers to have their say. She also tackled Mr Kettridge, telling him other agencies including Natural England, Swale council, Kent County Council and the police, had all insisted the EA was the one supposed to be taking the lead in legal proceedings.

She promised those present that the parish council would organise a multi-agency meeting to seek a solution "hopefully this side of Christmas".