COUNCILLORS are set to campaign for the return of community skips after 200 incidents of flytipping were reported in a single area of Burnley in a year.

 

Flytippers are said to be targeting the Rosehill with Burnley Wood area on ‘almost a daily basis’.

 

Now community leaders said they fear the town’s attitude is ‘regressing’ as more and more people deem it acceptable to dump rubbish on the streets.

 

Large amounts of household waste has been spotted in several streets, with the biggest problems centring around Branch Road, Parkinson Street and the surrounding areas.

 

In previous years in a bid to tackle flytipping Burnley Council offered residents free monthly access to skips.

 

A skip would be brought into an area and residents would be invited to take along their unwanted items.

 

Town Hall bosses said the idea behind the project was give people an alternative option to dumping rubbish in the streets or backyards. However the project was scrapped in 2015.

 

Cllr Jeff Sumner, who represents the area on Burnley Council, said he now plans to campaign for the return of the community skips.

 

He said: “Burnley Wood is one of the most deprived areas in Burnley.

 

“People have pride in themselves and try to keep the area clean, but it’s people coming from outside the area and thinking its okay to just throw things away.

 

“It’s mainly household waste. We never had this problem when we had the community skips.

 

“They were absolutely flawless, people would put their waste in the skips, which would come around once a month.

 

“But as soon as they went people couldn’t afford to pay to take it to the recycling centres. Now they wait until its dark and throw it where they can.

 

“We’ve gone backwards, the amount of rubbish we see is increasing dramatically and it’s not good.

 

“I will be bringing the issue of community skips up in the next council meeting and I will try and bring them back.”

 

Cllr Christine White, who also represents the area, said the situation has got out of hand.

 

She said: “It’s absolutely horrendous that people are willingly dumping rubbish on the streets and leaving it there.

 

“The back streets are becoming ‘grot spots’ because they have rubbish in them all the time.

 

“I find myself reporting rubbish to Burnley Council two, three, five times a week. It’s almost a daily occurrence.

 

“Since May 2016, 200 instances of flytipping have been reported in the Rosehill with Burnley Wood area. This is a significant rise on the previous year.

 

“Lots of the rubbish is left in the back alleys and in the back gardens of the empty properties.

 

“The people around here do not deserve this and I’m trying my best to report everything I see.”

 

Council bosses were unable to provide a breakdown of flytipping incidents in the ward year on year.

 

Flytippers face fines of up to £50,000 if caught.

 

Burnley Council has teamed up with Kingdom Environmental Enforcement Services to hand out £75 on the spot fines to those seen begging, dropping litter, flytipping or failing to pick up dog foul.

 

In just four weeks inspectors fined more than 550 people throughout Burnley.

 

A Burnley Council spokesman said: “Unfortunately we still suffer high levels of littering and fly-tipping across our borough.

 

“We are working with residents and other partners to tackle this and catch and take action against those responsible.

 

“This is why we have teamed up with a partner to introduce extra enforcement patrols to catch people who drop litter or fail to clean up after their dogs, and it’s why we are one of the best councils in the country for prosecuting fly-tippers.

 

“However, we can’t do this alone.

 

“We encourage people to let us know about these kind of issues so that we can identify ‘hot spot’ areas, target our enforcement work effectively and crack down on those responsible for spoiling our communities for everyone.”