CHILDREN have been left unable to play on their school field after a spate of fly-tipping.
The youngsters at St Nicholas and St Laurence C of E Primary School in Weymouth have now asked the culprit to apologise.
In the most recent incident, broken glass was among items left on the field, meaning it is unsafe for the children to play there.
And while the fly-tipping has been reported to police and the county council, staff and children at the school have been left frustrated because nothing is being done either to catch those responsible or to help clear the rubbish.
A spokesperson for Dorset Police said fly-tipping is a civil matter which is dealt with by the local authority, and a spokesperson for the Dorset Waste Partnership said that while they are aware of the fly-tipping, it does not fall within their remit.
A Dorset County Council spokesperson added that this is because the school field is private property.
Headteacher Helen Williams said: “We have fabulous recycling facilities in Weymouth. Dumping broken glass onto our school playing field is beyond belief."
Teachers spoke to children in the reception classes, who are aged four and five, to ask them how the fly-tipping made them feel.
They said it made them ‘sad, upset and angry that we cannot play there any more’.
Teachers asked them what people should do instead of fly-tipping and they said: “They should have given the stuff to someone else who might need it. They could also have given it to a charity shop, recycled it, or given it to the bin man to take away.”
When teachers asked what the children wanted to say to the culprits, they said: “We want to ask them to say sorry to us and to take back the rubbish they left behind.”
The first fly-tipping incident happened in over the Christmas holidays on December 29 when a washing machine and tumble dryer was dumped in the school grounds.
Then, last week, rubbish including broken furniture and shards of glass was dumped every night from Monday to Wednesday.
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