A large amount of rubbish has been dumped in the middle of the road close to council offices.

Residents in Bacup awoke to find the household and industrial rubbish taking up a large part of the road on Futures Park.

The fly tipping was located yards away from Rossendale Borough Council offices in the town.

The piles of rubbish stretching 10 metres included mattresses, sofas and building materials and was strewn across the road with motorists driving over the footpath to get past.

Rossendale Borough Council Environmental teams were aware of the fly-tipping and the council leader called the act ‘appalling’.

Resident Josh Pate said: “It is a shocking amount of rubbish.

“It was a done overnight as it was not there yesterday. It is taking up most of the road and people had to drive over the pavement just to get past.

“We have never seen this amount of rubbish dumped like this before.”

The rubbish appears to have been dumped early in the morning.

Rossendale Council Leader Councillor Alyson Barnes said the council would do everything in their powers to find out who had dumped the rubbish.

Cllr Barnes said: “This is absolutely disgraceful. 

“It is appalling that people think it is okay to do this. CCTV in the area will be checked and officers will be going through the rubbish to ascertain who is responsible.

“We will look to prosecute those responsible and issue them with significant fines.

“It is a real issue for the borough as it is for the other towns in the area and it has got a lot worse.

“We have been putting extra resources to combat fly-tipping with some major successes with courts issuing large fines.”

Lancashire Telegraph:

Rossendale Borough council urged anyone who witnesses fly-tipping to make a note of the registration number and a description of the person. 

The council says on its website: “We will carry out an investigation and take appropriate action. Offenders cannot be found in all cases and it is often difficult to trace the person responsible for fly-tipping.

“We will investigate fly-tipping on private land and take action if possible. It’s the land owner’s responsibility to remove fly-tipped waste. 

“However, if we are able to successfully prosecute an offender we will seek to recover the landowner’s costs of removal. We may take enforcement action against the land owner if they make no effort to prevent or remove fly-tipping.”