FLY-TIPPERS have dumped piles of rubbish alongside a major country road in Hyndburn.

County councillor Peter Britcliffe has branded the string of plastic bags, cooking oil cans and general debris on the verges of Haslingden Road near Oswaldtwistle Moor windfarm ‘disgusting’.

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He blamed County Hall’s introduction of charges to leave rubbish at its waste cycling centres in April 2015 for worsening the problem in the borough.

County Cllr Britcliffe, who represents the area, has urged council bosses to reverse the policy and to work with Hyndburn Council to step up preventative and enforcement work.

The two councils have promised to clear the mess, which appeared earlier this week and catch those responsible.

County Cllr Britcliffe said: “I am very concerned about this fly-tipping.

“The mess is disgusting.

“I would appeal to the county council to reverse their policy of charging people for taking waste to their recycling centres.

“It discourages people from getting rid of their rubbish properly and therefore encourages fly-tipping.

“We also need to do more the prevent and deter dumping like this by more enforcement, use of CCTV cameras and prosecutions.

“This is a beautiful country road round the edge of Hyndburn and this sort of dumping gives a bad impression of the borough.

“How can we expect people to come into Accrington, Oswaldtwistle, Church and other townships when they see this driving along their outskirts?”

John Birch, partnerships manager at the county council, denied the charges for recycling centres affected levels of fly-tipping and pledged to work by Hyndburn Council to remove the waste and catch the culprits.

He said: “Fly-tipping is a totally unacceptable problem and the county council has worked closely with its district partners over the last 12 months to try to identify any specific causes or trends.

“The consensus was that the trend in fly-tipping was similar to that seen nationally and that there was no individual policy attributable to the incidents observed across Lancashire.”

“We are working closely with district councils and other partners such as the Environment Agency to improve the identification and enforcement of fly tipping incidents.”

Hyndburn Council leader Cllr Miles Parkinson said: “We do everything we can to deter and prevent fly-tipping and catch those responsible.

“We need the public’s help to identify the culprits and prosecute them.”

“We will work with the county council to remove this rubbish from Haslingden Road