The newly cleared Railway Tavern, Bentley. Note dumping has already recommenced, 11:33am, Tuesday 1st December 2009

The accessway for the railway at the side of the former pub. Systematic dumping is evident, 11:32am, Tuesday 1st December 2009

Since yesterday’s post in which I mentioned the woeful state of the former Railway Tavern in Bentley, I thought I’d swing past today and take a couple of photos. Since last week, the main site of the pub has been thoroughly cleared, presumably by the owners. However, the site remains fully accessible by vehicles and dumping has already restarted (look in the corner of the car park, behind the rear of the outbuilding). The reason I suspect the owners of the pub cleared the site is due to the fact that the access way to the rail line beside the derelict tavern still contains a huge volume of what appears to be bagged commercial waste. That drive doesn’t belong to the same landowner, so i suspect that’s why it was left untouched.

Last week the refuse heap was so extensive that it stretched from the rear of the building all the way around the perimeter wall to the front driveway. For this situation to cease, the area needs to be secured and gated. Repeatedly clearing the mess is just providing a free waste collection service to the lawless idiots that do this. Let there be no mistake, it’s criminals that fly tip in this manner and I wholly support the authorities in their efforts to catch them. Until the site is secure, this abuse will continue.

It’s a tragedy, really. I used to drink at the pub on occasions, and it didn’t seem a bad house. To see a once decent inn in such a lamentable state is a crime of a rather different stripe.