I HAVE for quite some time been concerned at the level of fly-tipping taking place in Bolton while the ruling Labour group continue to release DEFRA stats stating there has been no increase in fly-tipping in the borough.

So for January, while out cycling I took it upon myself to also report fly-tipping and in less than 20 hours over a number of days, I found and reported 674 locations for fly-tipping.

All documented via fixmystreet.com with GPS and a picture and then reported it officially through the councils website to ensure the reports counted towards the

DEFRA stats.

The Labour-controlled council is, in my opinion, being intentionally neglecting the removal of fly-tipping unless a report was submitted by the public.

This allowed the authority to keep the DEFRA statistics low for one reason only ­— to push the narrative that fly-tipping has not increased and that the slim bins had been a success.

Well, 674 reports of fly-tipping which predominately consisted of household bags of rubbish which only took 20 hours to find tells me that Bolton does have a problem with fly-tipping.

There is some good news in this little environmental campaign, as the reports began to grow, I noticed fly-tipping which I had previously seen, but not reported begin to be removed without me needing to submit a report.

I shouldn't have had to report 674 reports and I shouldn't have been able to find 674 locations of fly-tipping.

Bolton Council needs to accept that behavioural change is not working for tackling the issue of fly-tipping and more needs to be done to keep our streets, parks and open spaces clean and safe for all.

Chris Banks

Bolton