A BLACKPOOL pensioner famed for his love of cast-offs has hit back at council claims he is using a private plot of land as a dumping ground for his "collection".

Dennis Bostock, 67, says environmental health officers have "exaggerated" piles of refuse found stashed at the site behind a private car park close to the Apollo 2000 store on Talbot Road.

Mr Bostock, of no fixed abode, was evicted from his Bloomfield Road home over unpaid council cleaning bills of more than £12,000 in August last year.

The former Runcorn Council worker -- dubbed the Blackpool Womble -- also served 6-week jail sentence after committing a string of environmental health offences.

A council spokeswoman said: "The Council has received reports from the tenant who operates the car park where the rubbish was being dumped by Mr Bostock.

"We are now working with the tenant to look at ways of making the site more secure."

But Mr Bostock -- who has spent the last three months living in £23-per-night temporary hotel accommodation -- claims this is the latest attempt by the council to "drive me out of town".

Mr Bostock said: "I know I've not exactly got a clean track record when it comes to these things.

"And I'm not saying I haven't visited the spot where I am supposed to have kept my latest collection.

"When I came out of prison late last year and had nowhere to live there was a little enclosed patch close to the site where I began sleeping rough.

"I have been back to it since then because I'm still living in a hotel and I don't want to upset my landlord by bringing back all sorts.

"He's been very kind to me and I'm comfortable there for the time being but I just wanted to keep a few bags of belongings safe and this seemed the right place to do this.

"Now the council are saying that I've been up to my old tricks again and that I've turned this place into a tip.

"This is not true.

"It was just a handful of carrier bags with some of the smellier stuff that I couldn't take back to the hotel.

"It's so unfair that I'm getting the blame for all of this when it's obviously other people who have been thinking they can dump their bin bags there.

"The council just don't want me living in Blackpool and are trying to drive me out of town."

Mr Bostock claims he is now waiting until the resort's tourist season kicks in before evaluating his long-term accommodation prospects.