Car park fly-tipper ordered to pay £340
A Skelmersdale man was told he must pay £340 after dumping mattresses and household waste in a car park.
Phillip Roughley, of Elmstead, Tanhouse, advertised a waste removal service called Lift & Shift on Facebook and had been paid to clear the rubbish by another Skelmersdale resident.
A complaint was soon made to West Lancashire Borough Council that waste, which also included cardboard packaging and a vacuum cleaner, had been dumped at the Abbey Lakes car park in Up Holland. Officers then traced it back to the resident’s address. Roughley was then invited to attend an interview and served with a legal notice ordering him to explain how this waste was found to be tipped.
But he failed to respond to the notice and was prosecuted for not providing the information requested by the council.
At Wigan and Leigh Magistrates’ Court, Roughley admitted flytipping and was ordered to pay a fine of £110, a victim surcharge of £30 and a contribution of £200 toward the council’s legal costs.
The council’s portfolio holder for health and community safety, Cllr Kevin Wright, said: “The council is ambitious for West Lancashire to have a good quality and clean environment, fly-tipping is an offence and we will continue to crack down on those that fly-tip and deposit litter to protect the local environment.”
After the prosecution, the council repeated a warning to householders that it is their responsibility to make sure that if they are having waste removed it is by an authorised waste carrier and that it is disposed of correctly.