In a press statement, Mepa said that besides the removal of two wooden rooms and a fence from the site, Mepa placed as much soil on the site as had been removed by the land-owner.

The scope for the direct action was to stop the illegal use of the site from a skip depot and to revert the site back to agricultural use.

Mepa issued the enforcement notice when a layer of inert material was dumped on the land after the soil had already been removed. This was done to facilitate this illegal use of the area.

For cost-saving purposes, Mepa, in consultation with its environment and planning directorates, decided that there was no need to remove this layer before restoring the soil cover since this would not compromise its agricultural potential.

In fact, had the layer been removed, another layer of similar material would have been needed to be placed on site before depositing the soil.