Blackburn with Darwen Council has successfully prosecuted 38 offenders over fly-tipping since April 1 despite the ongoing court backlogs.

The figure was revealed to the authority's full Council Forum on Thursday night by its environment boss Cllr Jim Smith.

In a report to colleagues he said: "The environment team continue to progress with a zero-tolerance approach to waste and fly tipping offences.

"An update on prosecutions this financial year has seen a slow down in the courts progressing cases, with a number of cases backlogged, but once they have been submitted, they will not become statute barred – out of time – and will be heard at some point in the future.

"This financial year we have seen 38 successful prosecutions through the courts - for the whole of the last financial year there were 99 successful prosecutions.

"At present, there are 213 outstanding cases with the magistrates team or progressing through the council’s legal services team for prosecution, and some of the cases with the Magistrates relate to 2022/23 financial year but have not yet been heard.

"We have seen 63 Fixed Penalty Notice’s paid; for the whole of last financial year, there were 69 FPNs for waste and fly tipping issued)."