'There’s rats that eat the rubbish, human waste, furniture - it’s even been set on fire'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Residents in Bury are becoming increasingly frustrated with the level of fly-tipping in the area. Emma Simms has been trying to sell a property near Manchester Road for the past two years but potential buyers have repeatedly refused to purchase the house because the land behind the property is used by fly-tippers to dump rubbish. ‘’There’s rats that eat the rubbish, there’s been human waste found, furniture that’s been left - like toilets - and it’s even been set on fire.’’ READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News WhatsApp community According to a recent report, Bury has faced an increase in fly-tipping within the past 18 months, rising from 3,308 reports to 3,323.

But despite the councils promise to crack down on perpetrators, residents are still facing piles of rubbish discarded on public and private land near their homes and in their communities which is having a huge impact.

Other residents have also found human health risks among the rubbish. Gill Smith, who runs Radcliffe Litter Pickers spoke to the MEN about some of the things she'd found during her picks: ‘’The things we find the most is cannabis farms.

We can find hundreds of plant pots. The compost we empty out and it gets spread out so it’s kind of recycled. That’s if it’s in a place it can be.’’ The local group has taken on the responsibility of clearing up rubbish in the area that has been dumped by fly-tippers. ’’The council, can’t pick everything up at once, there’s too much… We work together and we’ll clear what’s left behind.” Emma has repeatedly tried to contact the council about the refuse behind her house, but she says theyrefused to collect it on the grounds that the land the rubbish has been thrown onto is private and therefore