Oldham: 'Fly-tippers blocking road stop me getting to work'
A pharmacist has told how fly-tippers dumping waste on the road outside his house have left him unable to get to work.Faz Din, who lives on Moss Lane in Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside, said fridges, rubble, furniture had all been left strewn in the street. The 44-year-old added: "About once a month we get a big load of commercial waste. A fire engine or an ambulance couldn't get down this road, so its safety as well."Asked about one particular recent dumping, Tameside Council said: "We visited the incident, found some evidence, and the waste was removed on the same day."
When BBC Radio Manchester visited the area there was a sofa, a fridge, mattresses, carpets, plastic sheeting and car tyres all dumped by the roadside.
Mr Din said the illegal tippers have "no consideration for other people"."My kids have been late for school and I've had to replace car tyres due to screws from commercial waste which have been left in the road," he added.Tameside Council has the power to fine fly-tippers £200 while courts can impose unlimited fines and up to five years in prison for large-scale incidents.
Over the last financial year the council issued 236 fixed penalty notices for fly-tipping – more than any other local authority in north-west England.Mike Robinson, who's in charge of waste enforcement, said the authority had adopted a "zero tolerance approach"."My team go time and time again to the same places looking through bags of waste, finding evidence and making sure these people are paying for their actions," he said."Its not a nice job but somebody's got to do it."
The number of incidents recorded in Tameside was 2,905 in 2023/24 - a reduction of 34% on the previous year.Councillor Laura Boyle, executive member for environment services, said fly-tipping was "a blight on our environment"."It can be anything from small black bin-bags full of waste to sofas and TVs," she said."The people doing this are disrespecting our environment, they're disrespecting our neighbours and we're not accepting fly-tipping on the streets of Tameside."
Despite a fall in Tameside, councils across England dealt with 1.15 million cases of fly-tipping in 2023/24 - an increase of 6% on the previous year.Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: "Fly-tipping is wrecking both the environment and communities where it significantly contributes to people feeling left behind."
The BBC also discovered cases of fly-tipping in the Medlock Valley in Park Bridge, on John Street West in Ashton under Lyne and on Lime Street in Dukinfield.Tameside Council holds regular clean-up days as part of its Our Streets campaign to work with the community to help make the area cleaner.
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