VILLAGERS in Hill of Beath are concerned about continued dumping in the field behind the village community centre.

The village community council has been monitoring work being done at the field by farmer John Wilson and have aired concern about mud deposits on the main Cowdenbeath to Crossgates road.

And this week community council chairman John Park said that there continued to be a considerable amount of material being deposited in the field. He said this week, “The farmer has a licence to deposit top soil and rubble in the field but we have become concerned that there are a lot of other things getting tipped into it and buried and we have concerns that perhaps even asbestos could be involved.

“There have been concerns that there could be toxic substances getting dumped only a few hundreds yards from Hill of Beath so we are keen that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency keeps a strong eye on what is happening.

Mr Wilson has always maintained that everything is in hand and the villagers have nothing to worry about but the community council is continuing to keep a weather eye open.

Meanwhile SEPA is continuing to monitor developments. John Harris, Senior Environment Protection Officer, said, “We have visited the site in question a number of times over the past few months due to concerns we’ve received about the work being carried out. “The farmer is operating under an exemption to use inert waste and soils to improve drainage and return the land to grazing.

“We have found no evidence of asbestos or other hazardous wastes being deposited on site, but will carry out further visits in light of these most recent concerns .”