A MEMBER of Herefordshire Council's cabinet has been cautioned by the council following a fly-tipping incident.

Coun Roy Stockton of Walwyn Road, Colwall, is the Conservative member for the Hope End ward and the cabinet member with responsibility for community and social development.

The caution follows the discovery in September 2003 of a bag of household rubbish and a bag of papers in a hedgerow and ditch near Colwall church.

The discovery was made by retired solicitor Nigel Recordon of Bush Farm, Colwall, who habitually tidies up rural lanes in the area.

Papers among the rubbish indicated that it came from Mr Stockton's house.

Mr Recordon subsequently lodged an official complaint with Herefordshire Council. He also raised the possibility of initiating a private prosecution against Coun Stockton.

Coun Stockton, speaking to the Malvern Gazette this week, admitted he had been cautioned and said he was contrite about the incident. He said a local man - who he declined to name - had agreed to take some garden waste away to a place where it could be burned.

When the man took the garden waste away, he also took bags of domestic rubbish which had been left out for the regular rubbish collection.

He said: "I should have been more careful to find out what would actually happen to the rubbish."

A spokesman for Herefordshire's solicitor's department confirmed that formal cautions had been recorded against Coun Stockton and another man.

Mr Recordon said he was surprised at the gap between his initial complaint and its resolution.

In a letter to him, Herefordshire Council secretary and solicitor Marie Rosenthal attributed the delay to a review of procedures between the council and the Environment Agency.