A MEMBER of Herefordshire Council's cabinet has been cautioned 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 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 Recor-don, 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 about the dumping with Hereford-shire Council. He also raised the possibility of initiating a private prosecution against Coun Stockton.

Coun Stockton, speaking to the Ledbury Reporter 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 Here-fordshire Council's legal department confirmed that formal cautions had been recorded against Coun Stockton and another man.