BURNLEY Council has come in the top ten local authorities in the country for tackling fly-tipping.

Figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs reveal that Burnley Council has gone from the bottom rating of poor' to the best grading of very effective' in 12 months.

This is for tackling fly-tipping through investigation, enforcement and prosecutions.

As well as being the 10th best council in the country out of 392 authories for dealing with fly-tipping, Burnley is also rated third most effective in the North West, behind Manchester City Council and Trafford Council.

Recent Defra figures also showed that Burnley is the joint second in the country for cutting the amount of rubbish that has to be dumped into landfill sites, down 31 per cent, making it the seventh most improved area in the country for recycling.

Councillor Gordon Birtwistle, leader of Burnley Council, said: "We made a promise that we would clean up the borough and make it cleaner, greener and safer and that's exactly what we're doing.

"People are telling me that our streets and other areas are looking cleaner than they have done for many years and these figures from the Government provide hard evidence that's the case.

"Burnley Council is taking a zero tolerance approach to the mindless minority of people who are too lazy or who simply don't care about their community. Instead of taking responsibility for getting rid of their rubbish properly they dump it on someone else's doorstep. The vast majority of local people do care and do get rid of their rubbish in the right way, and they want us to crackdown on those who don't.

"We're happy to do that, and we're doing that more and more often. The number of prosecutions we're taking against fly-tippers is growing and our dedicated enforcement team at the council is getting more and more effective at catching the dumpers and taking them to court."

Joyce Walkden, the council's principal environmental health officer, said: "We are working smarter and targeting our resources to be more effective and make the biggest impact possible.

"We are getting better and better at tackling fly-tipping and we're sending out a clear message that we won't tolerate this kind of anti-social behaviour. As a result more people are telling us about fly-tipping and giving us information on who's responsible.

"The end result is that we're creating a cleaner and safer borough for everyone."