THOUSANDS of incidents of fly tipping caused a blight on Hyndburn over the course of a year, new statistics show.

Hyndburn Council was alerted to 2,397 reported incidences of fly tipping between August 2017 and September 2018, a report to go before the council’s resources overview and scrutiny committee next week.

Almost half (47 per cent) of reported fly-tipping involved waste dumped on back streets with 51 per cent being household waste.

And 49 per cent of cases involved a small van-sized load.

Previously, the council had a number of dedicated collection crews to remove fly–tipped waste as and when it was reported.

But continued budget pressures and the drive for efficiencies have led to the removal of these resources, with the frontline domestic collection crews now collecting fly-tipped waste located within their daily collection round.

There is one remaining mobile crew that clears waste outside of the normal collection crew’s routes but they are mainly responsible for clearing the main outer and inner gateway routes across the borough.

The council now aims to remove fly-tipped waste from back streets on the day of the grey bin collection day.

But there could be delays if it is being investigated by the council’s enforcement team or the Environment Agency, or the waste is such a weight that it requires removing by mechanical means.

This may mean a delay in its removal until the council can hire in suitable machinery and provide sufficient work for the minimum daily hire rate.

There could also be delays in cases where the waste requires specialist trained personnel to collect and pre-book the waste into the appropriate licensed hazardous waste disposal facility.

For waste fly-tipped on other open spaces and council-owned land, the local authority aims to remove it within 10 working days.

Nationally, DEFRA’s most recent statistics (2016-17) estimate there were more than one million incidents of fly-tipped waste across the UK, costing councils just under £60 million per year to clear.