A COUNCILLOR has called for dramatic improvements to be made on a Howley estate which he claims is 'starting to look in a sorry state' because of fly-tipping.

Cllr Kevin Bennett (TUSC – Fairfield and Howley) found a number of issues during a walk around St Elphin's Close and has again urged the council and Golden Gates Housing Trust (GGHT) to take action.

Among the waste dumped in the area was a bed.

But to his dismay Cllr Bennett also found waste, bedding and carpet left close by on St Katherine's Way.

He said: "Fairfield and Howley is having problems with this issue as I have reported on numerous occasions.

"This particular estate is part of GGHT and is starting to look in a sorry state.

"Apart from these fly-tipping problems the estate is looking in need of a good street cleaning initiative.

"The tenants in this area need to be valued and deserve to have a clean and safe area to live in."

The council insists fly-tipping will not be tolerated across the borough and said it is making it easier for residents to report incidents to help it during investigations.

A spokesman added: "It is a blight on our community and costs taxpayers money to clean it up.

"To help prevent fly-tipping and littering we are working with communities to ensure that people know how to recycle and to use the facilities provided for waste collection to help them to maintain their own area, to remove waste and to tackle those people who continually blight their communities.

"In order to investigate effectively, officers either need to find evidence within the waste that leads us to the fly-tippers or evidence from the public that leads us to those fly-tipping."

GGHT said it takes reports of littering and fly-tipping on its land 'very seriously'.

"The neighbourhood officer for the area carried out one of the regular estate walkabouts on October 30 and arranged for the bed on St Elphin's Close to be removed – at that time there wasn't any bedding or rubbish dumped on St Katherine's Way," added a spokesman.

"GGHT aims to remove things promptly but in this particular area items are dumped again as soon as the area is cleared.

"All Warrington residents are also able to request removal of bulky waste through the council – a charge may be applied for this service."

To report any issues call 443322 or visit warrington.gov.uk/report.