Dumping grounds

Rubbish dumped in the alley between Kingsley Road and Whitehouse Avenue, Clarksfield.

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FLY-TIPPING is on the decrease - but Oldham council still needs householder help to combat the scourge.

Councillor Barbara Brownridge, in charge of neighbourhood matters for the council, has defended the authority after several large-scale fly-tipping cases in recent weeks.

“No enforcement officer can be everywhere at once,” she said. “We will clear the rubbish and will prosecute if we find the evidence. But if the public sees somebody fly-tipping, give us their registration number and we will serve a fixed-penalty notice. Give us the ammunition and we’ll fire the bullets.”

One disgusted resident called on Oldhamers to restore pride in their borough after battling to get an ever-growing mountain of dumped furniture and household rubbish removed from land in Clarksfield.

The man blames private landlords for discarding unwanted household items when tenants move out - and says illegal fly-tipping is made worse by residents who refuse to lock alley gates.

“I’d say 90 per cent of residents don’t lock the gates, so people just come along they’ve probably been paid to shift and dump it here,” he said.

“Some private landlords just drag out the stuff they don’t want when a tenant moves out and dump it over the back. I used to say something if I saw people dropping litter, but they’re not bothered these days, they just laugh at you and walk on. There’s just no pride in the area any more.”

A council spokesman said the land is privately owned and the owner has been ordered to remove the rubbish, the majority of which has now been taken away.



During February the Chronicle reported on large amounts of rubbish dumped in Hollinwood, Chadderton and Failsworth.

Councillor Brownridge says these high-profile cases aren’t a true reflection of the council’s work to combat fly-tippers, which have seen offences drop by half since 2013.

Councillor Brownridge added: “When we had more money we would just go and collect the rubbish. It costs about £1million a year to do that, so we had to think about how to manage it differently.”

The different way includes programmes to change public behaviour. The council has worked with 14,000 households, informing householders how to dispose of unwanted rubbish properly. This has been followed with strong enforcement action and a zero-tolerance attitude to fly-tippers.

Last year Oldham hit 78 littering offenders with fines and 849 with fixed-penalty notices — both figures almost double those of the previous year.