Chorley residents see red over fly tipping of couch at Hogg's Lane

A woman out walking yesterday spotted the dumped couch and contacted the council who informed her that it will be removed.

Vocalising their distain on social media, one person called it “absolutely disgusting”, with another saying “If they had advertised it (the couch) for free someone would have gladly taken it”, while another added: “sad thing is loads of homeless charities would have taken the sofa for free.”

However, not all were of a similar mindset as one user complained: “If the tips were free for this kind of rubbish, it would stop a lot of fly tipping, you need a van to move this and vans are charged at tips.”

An Enforcement Officer for Chorley Council confirmed the couch will be removed at some stage today and added that fly tipping is a growing problem.

“Every day there is fly tipping. It is a growing problem. It’s terrible.

“Green waste in plastic bags instead of in the bin.

“If it were bags of stuff then we could look into it but because it’s a couch it could be from anywhere.

“They also cut the bottom out of couches to check that there are no £1 coins.”

Asked what he thinks should be done to alleviate the problem, he continued: “It would be handy for people if the companies who sell couches factor in removal charges for when people buy new ones.”

He stressed that anyone wishing to discard of household wares and struggling for advice on what to do should contact the council.