Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
STOP THE TIPPERS
Town blighted by illegal dumping
WITH rubbish and filth strewn all over, this neighbourhood is in the grip of a fly-tipping nightmare.
Locals have told how their homes have been invaded by rats and a disgusting stench fills the air.
Household waste, medicine bottles, needles, furniture, fridges and other electrical appliances are among the mounds of rubbish filling the area.
Single mum Lubna Rashid said her six children refuse to leave their bedrooms as their living room has been “ravaged by rats”. The 46-year-old added: “There is so much garbage in the street. It’s disgusting now and it’s full of rats.
“It’s so terrible, it smells terrible in the street. We can’t even open the windows.”
The fly-tipping in the Griffin area of Blackburn, Lancs, has been going on for months. Nearby homes are due for demolition but they are still occupied by many families.
Residents say people are driving in at night to illegally dump their rubbish. Blackburn and Darwen council cleared parts of the mound only last week – but it quickly started piling up again.
A spokesman said: “Our officers will do their best to respond to reports of rubbish dumping or fly-tipping and we have recently been in this area to remove fly-tipping. We will be investigating these latest incidents.”
Those caught fly-tipping face a £50,000 fine, six months’ jail, or both.
Figures last week showed councils in England dealt with more than 976,000 instances in 2019/20 – 2% up on the year before.
LOVE Island will be filmed on Jersey this summer if Covid restrictions block travel to Majorca.
TV chiefs are hoping for a return to the Mediterranean, with its greater chance of fine weather, after a double wipeout for the series last year.
But an insider said: “The Channel
Islands get plenty of sunshine, it makes sense to hold Love Island there if we can’t get back to Spain. Either way we’re going to put out a belting series.
“Viewers missed the show for the whole of 2020 and they’re desperate to have it back.
“They’re going to love what we do, wherever we go.” Jersey is currently being held as a back-up alternative to John Nettles as Bergerac
Majorca and a final decision on which venue to use is expected in days.
Love Island’s pregnant host Laura Whitmore, 35, has revealed there is no shortage of wannabe contestants for ITV2’S summer series. “We’ve had more applications than ever,” she said.
Majorca basks in up to 350 hours of sunshine in summer, with average temperatures of about 26C. Jersey, 14 miles off the coast of Normandy, averages 250
hours’ sun in June and July, with a norm of 20C.
Its beauty was showcased on TV in the detective series Bergerac during the 1980s. Love Island narrator Iain Stirling, 33 – Laura’s husband – has suggested a UK version could be good. “If contestants can’t eat dinner because seagulls are taking it off the plate, that could mix things up,” he said.
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