WASTE from a major York company was left strewn all over a local beauty spot and site of special scientific interest.

Bags containing shredded documents from CPP, which offers a credit card protection service, were found on Strensall Common on Monday by local resident Andrew Gough.

He said: “There was an incredible amount of waste paper litter spread over hundreds of yards.

“Strensall Common seems to be a dumping ground for litter, cars, and rubbish thrown from cars.

“It’s shredded paper. It’s obviously the contents of the office shredder.”

Mr Gough said he reported it to the company, who arrived on Tuesday to pick up as much as they could, but some remained.

He said letters and numbers could be discerned from the shredded paper, but CPP denied it was a breach of security.

Mr Gough said the waste was particularly disturbing, as the area is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Neil Hamilton, Group IT and business services director for CPP, apologised and said the contractor who collects their rubbish was being questioned about how it happened.

He said: “CPP immediately investigated the matter and has since removed all the waste material from Strensall Common.

“CPP uses accredited specialist contractors to handle all its waste materials.

“An investigation commenced immediately to understand how the material came to be on Strensall Common. “Since 2004, CPP has been certified as compliant with the International Standard for Information Security, commonly known as ISO27001, and is also compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

“The waste material did not contain any customer data and there are no security issues relating to this incident.

“CPP is sorry for the environmental impact the rubbish caused to local residents.”