LITTER pickers have urged the community to "take responsibility" and report fly-tipping after rubbish was dumped on Winter Hill.

The Litter Pickers of North Bolton recently cleared an area of moorland after household waste was left close to one of the footpaths at the beloved beauty spot.

Eileen McKay Crowe, co-founder of the group, said the group went to the site after they saw pictures on social media.

She said: "It is appalling that people would go out there and ruin that beautiful area.

"They obviously have vehicles to go to the tip if they manage to get up there.

"We decided to go straight out there and have a look. The longer the litter is left, the more people start leaving things.

"We are trying to be forever positive so we went out and we removed a lot of what was fly-tipped."

Members of the group bagged most of the rubbish at the weekend and reported it to Bolton Council.

Workers from the authority then collected the rest of the waste.

As well as feeling saddened about the incident itself, she was also upset that nobody had reported it sooner, as it was on a popular walking route and had been there for at least a couple of days.

"I just felt so unbelievably sad that somebody would think it was alright to do something like that.

"But what also made me sad is that so many people go walking around there and nobody reported it.

"This incident did not happen at the weekend, there was a lot of old stuff there.

"If it is not reported then it can not be collected. So I felt sad about that. We have all got to be responsible because it is our litter. We can not get into the blame game and accusing young people or drunk people who have gone to the takeaway."

To report incidents of fly-tipping spotted in the Bolton area, call the council on 01204 336632 or go to bolton.gov.uk

For more information on the Litter Pickers of Bolton North, go to the group's Facebook page.