Tip-off leads authorities to huge fly-tipping site in Liverpool

A tip-off from the public has stopped tonnes of waste being fly-tipped in an empty warehouse, a council has said.

Liverpool City Council said it was told a site in the north of the city was being set up as an illegal dump.

A joint operation with police and the Environment Agency revealed signs advertising services, including the deposal of asbestos, had been put up.

The council said if dumping had happened, it could have caused "significant environmental damage".

A representative said the operation "revealed that criminals had broken into an empty warehouse in North Liverpool and bypassed the electricity supply to install a lighting system".

"They had also created false site advertisement boards to suggest... that a legitimate waste operation, including the deposit of asbestos waste, was being established," they said.

They added that members of the public had "alerted local agencies to the site, allowing them to quickly take action before any rubbish could be dumped".

"Had the illegal dumping been allowed to happen, the result would have likely led to significant environmental damage [and] there would also have been significant costs to the public purse to safely clear the site," they said.

City councillor Liam Robinson said the operation had "prevented a major environmental problem and saved the city council a small fortune in clearance costs".

He added that the authority had been "investing in CCTV to help catch fly-tippers, but we can't film everywhere, so we need the public to be our eyes and ears as well".

"Given the budget savings the council is having to make, any fly-tipping we can prevent, however big or small, will make a huge difference to the services we are trying to protect."

The authority said an investigation to identify those responsible was ongoing, but no arrests had been made.

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