A BURNLEY councillor is sending out a warning after a man appeared before magistrates for tipping rubbish in a lay-by yards from a council dump.

George Greenwood, of Plover Street, was ordered to pay costs of £509 to the Environment Agency, who brought the prosecution, and given a 12 month conditional discharge.

Matt Lockett, prosecuting on behalf of the Environment Agency, told magistrates that on May 11 2002 the Environment Agency received a complaint from a local government officer that two men had been seen unloading items from a van onto land at a lay-by near Deerplay Landfill site.

The complainant supplied the vehicle registration number.

An Agency Environment Protection Officer attended the scene on May 17 and found a pile of waste including two fridge freezers, a cooker, two settees, a roll of carpet, a mattress and numerous binbags.

In the waste the officer found a letter addressed to a Miss Greenwood of Plover Street, Burnley.

The van was later traced and it was found that it had been hired to the defendant George Greenwood of the same address.

Mr Green wood was interviewed by and admitted depositing many of the waste items including a cooker, fridge freezer, a roll of carpet, settee and bin bags.

He admitted that he knew that it was wrong to tip the waste in the lay-by and should have done so at a licensed tip.

Councillor Charles Bullas, the council's executive member for public protection and community safety said after the case: "People now need to be careful what they are doing.

"We have tried to educate people and make them responsible. At the end of the day it is their town they are ruining.

"People won't come to Burnley if it looks scruffy and untidy and it is not good for our environment.

"This prosecution backs up what we are trying to do in Burnley. We are not going to tolerate fly tipping -- we will nail them."