RESIDENTS who fail to look after the environment will be taken to court.

That's the vow from Pendle Council after the prosec-ution of two residents.

Tania Holt, of Chapel House Road, Nelson, was fined £150 for failing to recycle while she lived at Hawarden Street in the town.

Neighbours had regularly complained to the council about bags of rubbish piling up at the back of the property.

The council's enforcement officers went to investigate and found a variety of rubbish in the bags, which included papers, plastic, cans and glass that could be recycled.

Some of the rubbish in the bags helped the council to link it to Holt, and she was issued with a fixed penalty, which she did not pay.

Holt was also ordered to pay £180 prosecution costs as well as the fine in court.

And in the second case, Mohammed Adnan, of Carr Road, Nelson, pleaded guilty to fly tipping trade waste at the Carr Road recycling site in Nelson.

During a regular inspe-ction of the recycling site at Carr Road last October, it was found that some rubbish had been fly tipped. Council officers found letters addressed to Adnan's business in Stockport.

Adnan was sentenced to a conditional discharge of 12 months and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £160.

Coun John David, Pendle Council's representative for the environment, said: "People should know by now that they can't behave like this in Pendle and expect not to be punished. We can and do catch up with people who don't look after the environment.

The two unrelated cases were both heard in Reedley Magistrates' Court.