Mountains of tyres dumped in lane

Fly-tippers are being blamed for mountains of tyres and an old purple sofa that have been found dumped along a country lane in Shropshire.The discovery was made by Dusty Dovaston of Shifnal Rural Watch who was on patrol in one of Shifnal's hotspots for fly-tipping - Nanny Murphy's Lane.

He said more than 100 tyres have been found along with rubbish sacks bursting with empty beer cans.

Mr Dovaston said: "I came across the fly-tipping last week.

"There are three piles of tyres along Nanny Murphy's lane. The big one has about 80 to 100 tyres.

"The sofa is about a quarter of a mile down the road from there. And there's another pile of rubbish - three of four bags of empty Carling cans. Why can't they just take it to the recycling bank at the village hall?"

Mr Dovaston said he was outraged that irresponsible people were using the countryside as a dumping ground instead of using official tips and recycling centres.

"They are just destroying our environment," he said. "They are causing severe problems."

"The people living in the Bridgnorth area are having to pick up the bill and it's probably people coming from outside that are doing it."

Since setting up Shifnal and Albrighton Rural Watch in December last year, Mr Dovaston said he had recorded and photographed 130 incidents of fly-tipping in the area.

"It's an on-going problem right across Shifnal," he said. "We want to stop those who are doing it."

Shifnal has been blighted by incidents of fly-tipping and in February people were amazed to find a motorboat had been discarded in The Hem.

Land off Haughton Road has been another area targeted by fly-tippers, but problems have eased there recently, according to Mr Dovaston.

Items found dumped have included sofas, mattresses, timber, fridges and bags.

Mr Dovaston passes his pictures of the items on to Bridgnorth District Council.

Steve Brown, head of leisure and amenity services at the council, said: "We do know about it.

"We had a member of staff out yesterday morning. We will get it programmed to be removed. It will be done in the next few days."

By Lizzie Yates

nextpage A purple sofa dumped by fly-tippers.

More than 100 tyres were discovered.