BUSINESS owners are calling on the council to take action over fly-tipping.

Asif Adam, who owns The Late Night Mini Market, said newly-installed council bins have made Whalley Banks in Blackburn a hotspot for fly tipping.

He said a dozen bags were left next to the bin outside his business last week which he fears will attract rats.

He said: “Someone had left 12 bags of rubbish next to the bin on the street on Thursday. The bin wagon came and emptied the bins but didn’t take the bags so I got onto the council.

“I spoke to someone at the environmental department who said it wasn’t their area and told me to contact the fly tipping department, so I got onto them and they told me to email them. The thing is, I’m dyslexic so I didn’t feel like I could explain the problem properly in writing so they said someone would ring me in 48 hours.

“I rang them on Friday night and they said it was on the job sheet and someone would be out to pick them up in 10 days.

“The problem is, they’ve only been there since Thursday and three have them have already split, by the time they pick them up there’s going to rubbish all over the pavement. They’ll be attracting rats soon, then we’ll be in real trouble.”

Mr Adam said he believes the majority of the bags have been left by occupiers from the surrounding flats as there is no where else for them to dispose of their rubbish.

He said the entries of the ‘giant’ bins are too small to fit a rubbish bag in so they are being left in the street.

He said: “They put these 14 bins in the middle of the road without asking any of us.

“These giant bins make it so there are less car parking spaces available on the street so people are less likely to stop at the businesses.

“They’re about the size of a wheelie bin but you can’t actually fit any rubbish in them.

“There are no alleys in the area to store wheelie bins so people in the flats have to use these bins on the street.

“The problem is, they holes are too small to fit a bin bag in so they leave them on the street.”

Cllr Jim Smith, Executive Member for Environment, said there is a ‘balance to be struck’ between removing rubbish and dealing with the bins.

He said: “Our crews now collect twice a week from the Whalley Banks area, hence the bags were cleared earlier on Monday“We believe the situation has improved since the introduction of the extra bins and the additional collections, there is a balance to be struck between dealing with removing rubbish and the minor inconvenience caused by the bins.

“The waste is believed to be caused by a combination of the flats, with some trade waste and some passing fly tipping. We will of course be using CCTV to catch the culprits, and any vehicles seen to be involved may be seized.”