A LONG-awaited clean-up operation has begun on a farm used as an illegal dumping ground for thousands of rubber tyres.

Farmer Christopher Dowson, of Poplars Farm, Pershore, says he is relieved that the final 18,000 tyres abandoned on his farm are being removed, four years after they were dumped.

The £19,000 Environment Agency clean-up started on Thursday and is expected to last 10 days. Already three articulated lorry loads have been taken to be shredded and turned into rubber crumb.

"It will be a great relief when it's all gone," said Mr Dowson, who has already spent £22,000 to remove some 20,000 other tyres.

"It's cost us an absolute fortune but our only concern is to get rid of them."

He is sharing the new cost with the EA.

The tyres were abandoned on the farm in 1999. The men who rented the land claimed to be running a legitimate tyre collection and reprocessing operation.

But after two weeks, and nearly 40,000 tyres later, the farmer was told they would not be able to pay.

They had taken tyres into a building but once it was full the tyres were dumped in hedgerows.

The tyres remained on the site, even after successful prosecution by the Environment Agency.

One of the men was fined £1,250 on Friday, March 1, last year at Worcester Magistrates Court and his partner given 200 hours community service on Friday, June 21, 2002 at Worcester Crown Court.

Both were ordered to pay costs, and some compensation.

"Dumped waste tyres are a blight on our landscape and a threat to the environment and to human health and safety," said Charles Tucker, an environment team leader involved in the investigation and prosecution.

"Tyres break down over time to release harmful chemicals and produce toxic fumes if set alight.

"The agency has no duty to remove these tyres, but we are doing so now because of the risk of environmental harm.

"By removing them ourselves, we can make sure that they are all recycled and put to a beneficial use, not simply dumped at a landfill site."