Backyard used as rubbish dump is '˜stain on town'

The Visitor received photos of the flytipped rubbish, which includes binbags containing household rubbish, a fridge freezer, chairs, towels and mattresses.

The resident who alerted us to the issue said they had been complaining about the rubbish since October and that it was ‘a stain on the town.’ Another resident said: “The council do seem to come and clear the rubbish every two weeks or so but then it accumulates again.

“The only way to combat it is to put up CCTV cameras to catch the culprits redhanded.

“The problem seems to have got worse over the last couple of years, we have lived here for 11 years and it was never this bad.”

A spokesman for Lancaster City Council said: “We are aware of the problem of rubbish which has accumulated in the garden of a property on Westminster Road.

“We have visited the property this week and spoken to the new owners of the building who have assured us that the rubbish will be cleared.

“We will reinspect the property in the New Year to check whether or not this has taken place.”

Fly-tipping is the illegal dumping of waste. Any type of waste can be fly-tipped but it most commonly involves:

l Furniture

l Black bags of rubbish

l Hedge/tree prunings

l White goods (fridges/freezers)

l Demolition waste.

Lancaster City Council and the Environment Agency will investigate flytipping on public land. The maximum fine for flytipping is £50,000 and up to five years in prison.