FLY-TIPPING may be on the rise as a huge quantity of green waste has been found and removed outside Liden Primary school this week.

On Monday the pile was reported to the council, who left it in place for four days while they attempted to identify the culprit.

After failing to do so, the pile was removed on Thursday.

While the council have previously stated they would not clean up green waste if dumped around the town, if it is hazardous or in a prominent location they say they will act.

Coun Derique Montaut (Lab, Liden and Eldene) is concerned the recent introduction of a charge on green waste will see such instances increasing in the town.

“It is the worst case of fly-tipping I have seen, and it is just another instance in Liden of tipping of green waste as the result of the introduction of the policy to charge for collection of green bins,” he said.

“People are increasingly dumping their waste, and as a result they are turning our streets into this unsightly situation.

“Our streets are being used as a dumping ground.”

Coun Montaut added that the green waste policy was not only leading to an increase in fly-tipping but putting unsustainable pressure on the Cheney Manor recycling centre.

“As a result of bringing in this policy to claw money back we are seeing an increasing number of people tipping,” he said.

“To compound the problem the site where people bring their waste in Cheney Manor is seeing horrendous queues of traffic building up, which is causing futher pollution, annoyance and aggravation. It is irresponsible and cannot be tolerated.

“The administration are now looking at the possibility of opening up another site, which is an admission that their policies have gone wrong.

“What is concerning is this is waste dumped outside a school and is setting a terrible example, which makes it harder to accept.

“Do we want to show an image of Swindon as a dirty town?

“This is on a main road through the area and in plainsight, and it just encourages other people so we get more of it. The administration are being very irresponsible about this.”

A spokesman for Swindon Council said: “The waste pile was reported to us by the local residents’ association on Monday, and we cleared it away four days later on the Thursday.

“With the agreement of the association, we left the waste in place for a couple of days after it was first reported to us in the hope that we could identify who had dumped it and get them to clear up the mess they had created.

“Although we investigated, we couldn’t find out who was responsible, so our crews moved it shortly afterwards.

“What we did is entirely in line with our stated policy.”