Large PPE store to be removed from New Forest caravan site

The kit is stored on pallets and is due to be recycled, a council said

A large store of personal protective equipment (PPE) on a caravan site is to be removed because it breaches the site's licence, a council has said.

The kit was found on 4 April at Little Testwood Farm in Calmore, Hampshire.

Hampshire county councillors previously heard it might have been discarded as substandard during the Covid pandemic and illegally dumped.

However, New Forest District Council said the PPE was stored on pallets and was due to be recycled.

The caravan park has been approached for comment.

The kit is on a caravan site near Testwood Lakes Nature Reserve

"[The kit] was being stored on the land in contravention of the caravan site licence conditions," the district council said in a statement.

"All the material is packaged and palletized and is due to be removed from the site for processing and recycling into plastic bags over the coming weeks."

On Wednesday, members of Hampshire County Council's regulatory committee were told the stockpile was "hidden at the back of the site".

"It is a really good example of where there has been an illegal dumping of waste," a council officer told the meeting, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The Environment Agency has been asked to investigate the source of the PPE and "whether it was discarded by a health trust as substandard during the Covid procurement", councillors heard.

In 2022, Department for Health and Social Care accounts for the previous year revealed that £673m worth of PPE bought during the pandemic was unusable, while £750m of equipment was not used before its expiry date.