Local flytipping fury

Illegal dumping is proving a pain for the manager of Tile Market on the Portadown Road.

Garden waste, including paving slabs, bricks and garden furniture, has been dumped behind the Lurgan store three times in the past few weeks.

Manager Anita McGeown told the ‘MAIL’: “Somebody is driving around the back and dumping big piles of garden waste. There’s three piles down here that have been dumped over the last two weeks.

“If they keep doing it we’re not going to be able to get the lorries down.”

She added: “I would have thought it was the same person doing it but not necessarily from the same garden. It could be someone who does gardens for a living.

“I contacted Environmental Services and they say it’s private property so we have to pay for it to be lifted.

“We looked through it to see if there was any way of identifying who dumped it, but there was nothing.

“It’s a bit much to pay for someone else’s rubbish to be lifted.”

A council spokesperson said: “As the garden waste has been dumped on private property it is upon the landowners to dispose of it unless the offenders can be identified and pursued.

“Council would urge local residents and landowners to be extra vigilant and report any vehicles where waste is seen being dumped illegally throughout the borough and where possible to ensure that their lands are secure to prevent fly-tipping occurring.”

Over the past financial year council have issued 33 50 fixed penalty fines for fly-tipping and have also brought five cases to court with fines ranging from 100 plus costs up to 225 plus costs.