VOLUNTEERS recovered tonnes of fly-tipped rubbish from a playing field in Bolton and even discovered a knife during the clear-up.

The Bolton Green Umbrella provided an opportunity for the Litter Pickers of North Bolton and Bolton North East Wildlife Trail to work together to remove rubbish and litter from New House Farm Playing Field, Breightmet.

The field is a popular spot with local football teams and this was the second clearance volunteers have carried out in recent months following one in December.

The collection at the end of last year saw more than 80 bags of litter removed from the hedgerow and the lates tone worked on the remove of fly-tipped waste rather than litter.

Around 15 volunteers helped clear the rubbish and one even found a fixed blade knife.

By the end of the clear-up rubbish could be seen stretching along the road and Bolton Council came to collect it the following day.

The rubbish collected was mostly household waste believed to have been dumped by people living nearby.

Bolton NEWT Chairman, Chris Banks said: “It was pretty much entirely fly-tipping. We are really talking about tonnage rather than bags.

“Everywhere you look in Bolton there is fly-tipping going on.

“A lot of the people who came to help didn’t live in Breightmet and they came to our area to help us. We just wanted to say a really big thank you to them.

“It is a shame, I have been back down there since and there is already more rubbish. You feel like it doesn’t make a difference.”