Tipping point

Reporter: Lucy Kenderdine
Date published: 29 May 2014


FLY-TIPPING and littering has blighted land in Oldham town centre for more than a decade - despite being yards away from a warning sign.

Martin Pawley, whose house in Wimpole Street overlooks the littered land, is angry and is urging Oldham Council to take further action. The 50 year old said: “I’m fed up of the rubbish being dumped on the land near my house. It’s a health issue and it needs to be dealt with now.

“I have my own business but it seems like I’m spending more and more time dealing with this mess instead. I have contacted the council several times to report the fly-tipping but every week it seems like more is being dumped.

“I would hope that someone would have come down here to look or at least tried to catch the person who is repeatedly flytipping.”

The culprits are also dumping the waste just yards from a council “Fly tipping is an offence” sign.

The council has visited the site five times since 2007.

Elaine McLean, executive director for neighbourhoods, said: “We would like to thank Mr Pawley for doing his bit and cleaning up fly-tipping in his area.

“The vast majority of people take pride in their community and keep things clean and tidy. But there’s always a small minority who think they can just throw waste away and leave others to clear up.”