Mattresses and junk dumped outside Walsall homes

Mattresses, old furniture and junk have been dumped in a street in Walsall.

The rubbish, in Forest Lane, is believed to have been left at a derelict factory on the road, but much of the waste has spread to the street.

Councillor Matt Ward said residents were fed up and had been living with the items by their homes for two weeks.

Walsall Council said it had asked the site owners to clear it up and added the authority would remove any rubbish on the highway.

"More needs to be done to tackle and prosecute those who fly-tip," Mr Ward, who represents Blakenall, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"We are seeing reckless criminals blight our community far too often with their rubbish.

"I hope that the council act on any intelligence that it receives and use the full force of the law to prosecute those who commit these offences.

"I'm sure many would agree that for those that do fly-tip they should be jailed."

A spokesman for Walsall Council said much of the fly-tipping in this instance was on private land and was "therefore the responsibility of the land owner", but rubbish on the street would be cleaned up by council teams.

The local authority said it costs about £1m a year to clean up fly-tipping incidents and that it posted CCTV footage on its website in a bid to identify culprits.

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