REPORTS of fly-tipping in Leigh have shot up over the past year but have dropped in Tyldesley and Atherton.

A Freedom of Information request has shown that fly-tipping reports in Leigh increased from 434 to 575, a 32 per cent rise.

The number of fly-tipping reports in Tyldesley and Atherton fell from 111 and 150 to 19 and 102 respectively.

These figures represent 83 per cent and 32 per cent decreases respectively.

The street in which the most reports were made across the towns over the past three years was Glebe Street in Leigh, with 83.

The second highest was Gordon Street in Leigh, with 48 reports.

Karl Battersby, Wigan Council’s director for economy and environment, said: “We are aware of the high number of fly-tipping reports within the Leigh area over the past year and are working extremely hard to combat this.

“There is a large quantity of privately-rented houses within a really small area, including Glebe Street and the surrounding locations, that create a larger amount of waste than usually expected in this size of area.

“We have undertaken many proactive pieces of work in these locations over the past few years, including bin amnesties, clean up days, community litter picks and also a series of educational events.

“We removed four tonnes of waste and 37 contaminated recycling bins in a day of action last year, which took place in Glebe Street, Gordon Street and also Selwyn Street.

“We are currently in the process of forming a working group with officers in waste services and councillors to continue to combat this issue.

“Moving forward we will be enforcing fixed penalties and prosecutions for people who continue to fly-tip and disregard their communities in this way.”

The request includes reports recorded from May 1, 2014, to April 30, 2017.