THE Environment Agency is to look into enforcement action after clearing 4,000 bales of illegally tipped waste caused a ‘plague of flies’ in Oswaldtwistle.

The organisation has been working with Hyndburn Council, Lancashire County Council, Blakeley’s Waste Management and the land-owners to make sure all of the rubbish and accompanying flies have been removed.

An investigation has now been launched into how the waste came to be on the NIPA Laboratories site, in Nook Lane.

Steve Molyneux, environment manager for the Environment Agency in Lancashire, said: “We are satisfied that works to remove the waste at Nook Lane have been completed.

“We are confident that all the bales that have been removed contain only household, commercial waste.

“This is a complex investigation, consequently, we have a team of officers working on this as a priority.

“Once we understand the full picture, we will look at what enforcement action is appropriate for us to take against those involved.

“For legal reasons we cannot give more details out at this stage. However, once we have concluded our investigations and know what our enforcement action will be, we will update the local community.

“Chairman of the Oswaldtwistle Area council, Coun Peter Britcliffe said residents in the town still have a lot of unanswered questions about the recent nightmare.

He said: “We still have a lot of questions that need answering and as the chairman of the local area council I am inviting representatives from the Environment Agency, County Council and Hyndburn Council’s Environmental department to come along to our next meeting on November 7 at the Civic theatre in Oswaldtwistle and address these questions.

“Although it is great that the rubbish and flies have been removed we want to know how this was able to happen in the first place.”