A “mountain” of rubbish has been dumped in the middle of a residential street.
Residents of James Street, Preston, have united in uproar at the flytipping on a piece of grass and wasteland near the road’s junction with Mellor Place.
Councillor Yakub Patel said: “I went on holiday for a couple of weeks, and came back to lots and lots of complaints about this fly-tipping problem.
“I went down to the piece of land and was shocked about the amount of rubbish that had just been dumped.
“There’s loads of the stuff, all in black bags.
“It’s not just terrible, it’s shock horror stuff, and it’s in the middle of the street, right opposite a block of flats for elderly people.
“When the weather warms up it will really start to stink, and will attract rats. It’s really awful.
“And it’s such a shame, because only 20 or 30 yards away is a back alley that’s recently won an award for cleanliness.”
Problems on the land, which is fenced off and privately owned, have been reported to Preston Council by Coun Yakub, who is keen to put an end to situation.
He added: “I want this cleaning up as soon as possible, because I don’t want people thinking that this is an acceptable thing to do.”
Preston Council said that it had been aware of the case for sometime, but it was “not straight froward”, due to the land being privately owned, dangerous, and with poor access.
Preston Council is only responsible for the clearing of fly-tipped materials from the highway and public land.
If fly-tipping occurs on private land it is the responsibility of the landowner to remove it.
If someone is caught fly-tipping, or if waste from their premises is found fly-tipped they can be fined up to £50,000 or face possible imprisonment.
Recently, Preston Council successfully prosecuted Sean Whitham of Hathaway Road, Fleetwood, who pleaded guilty at Preston Magistrates after being charged with fly tipping, two counts of illegal waste carrying and giving false details to a scrap yard.
He received a 12-month conditional discharge and was ordered to pay £500 for clean up costs and investigation and legal costs.
Incidents of flytipping have increased across the Lancashire County Council area.
New reports have shiown that from 22,232 in 2009/10 to 22,978 in 2010/11, according to the latest figures available.
Preston saw a decrease in that period, down from 3,371 to 2,613.
Chorley noted an increase and council bosses there have blamed the recession for residents and businesses being less inclined to pay for bulky waste collection, a service many councils charge for.
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