A HUGE amount of fly-tipped rubbish was uncovered and removed from a ginnel yesterday.

Neighbours spotted a ‘disgusting’ mattress, a fridge, and a door among the waste that was dumped on the unadopted path off Iron Street, Horwich.

New Government statistics confirmed yesterday that there were 2,065 reported incidents of fly-tipping across Bolton in 2016/17, costing the council £146,889 to tackle.

The removal work in Iron Street was carried out by offenders on the Community Payback programme.

Nearby resident Rob Clegg was shocked at the scale of the fly-tipping as he watched the rubbish being taken away.

He said: “They were collecting all sorts of stuff that had been tipped there.

“I saw a disgusting mattress, a fridge-freezer, a three-piece suite, a door, rolls of carpet, and bags full of rubbish.

“There was too much to fill two Transit vans.

“I know that this has been going on for a while now and that there has been quite a lot of fly-tipping there.

“But I have lived here for two years and was not aware at all of most of the rubbish they were pulling out of the ginnel.

“It has obviously been dragged down there and covered over.”

According to the new figures confirmed yesterday, the number of fly-tipping reports in Bolton dropped by almost 1,000 compared to the previous year.

Those numbers were released by the council in April, when they were sent to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

A council spokesman said: “Fly-tipping is an unacceptable blight on our landscape and we will take action against fly-tippers wherever possible.

“In this case, we are working in partnership with Community Payback to help clear the land and make it more accessible to the public.”