A STREET has been left covered with beer cans after reports of a drink-driving litterbug.

Scores of cans of Carlsberg Special Brew were spotted in Brodick Drive in Breightmet after a resident swept the litter out of a hedgerow alongside the road.

The cans can be seen to line much of the residential road which faces SS Osmund and Andrews Roman Catholic Primary School and is used by dozens of youngsters every day.

Environmental campaigner, Chris Banks, who regularly reports incidents of fly-tipping around the borough spoke with a local resident about the drink-discarding offender.

Breightmet resident Mr Banks, aged 32, said: “I have seen on a couple of occasions a local resident cleaning the hedgerow alongside Brodick Drive.

“I happened to speak to him on one occasion and he informed me that all the Special Brew cans in the hedgerow had been thrown in to it by someone who has driving along the road while drinking them.

“On another morning I noticed that the entire hedge row had been swept out and all the rubbish, which appears to contain up to 80 cans of Special Brew were in the street gutter.

“I have no idea who swept the rubbish out but many children and their parents will have walked through that mess on their way to school.”

Fly-tipping has become an increasingly troubling issue across Bolton in recent years and a Freedom of Information request recently revealed that reported incidents of fly-tipping in 2014 had risen by 40 per cent compared with the previous year.

Breightmet Councillor Lynda Byrne said she knows fly-tipping is a big issue for Breightmet and the rest of the borough but was shocked to hear the reports of this incident.

She said: “If that is true, that someone was drinking, driving and littering then that is awful and I am really shocked.

“Do these people not realise that they are paying their council tax for us to then go and clean up their mess.

“We know there are several hot-spots for fly-tipping in Breightmet and myself, my husband (and fellow Breightmet Councillor) John Byrne organise a monthly litter pick with residents and members of St James Church in Roscow Avenue.

“If anyone would like to help us to make Breightmet a cleaner place they can contact us on 01204 523 141.”