A FURIOUS mayor has had enough of council excuses over flytipping in Broadgreen.

Coun Junab Ali, a ward councillor for the area, asked borough chiefs why the tide of waste appeared to be growing - despite the presence of a dozen council CCTV cameras meant to catch the culprits.

In just one day, the Swindon Advertiser counted more than two dozen piles of dumped waste in Broadgreen’s alleyways. Among the litter were fridges, bottles of urine and a dead rat.

Speaking at a meeting of South Swindon Parish Council, the borough council’s town centre chief defended the authority’s record.

He claimed the Victorian street layout, with dark back alleys, made it difficult to put cameras everywhere.

But Coun Ali, whose term as Swindon mayor runs until April, blasted back: “I’ve been hearing this for the last 12 years. I don’t buy it anymore.

“It’s the same old chat. Real action has to be taken.

“There are a lot of residents who have offered their houses to power the cameras. I don’t think that was taken up.

“Why, with all these extra cameras the problem has got worse?”

A visibly uncomfortable Mark Walker, borough council town centre locality lead, said: “The layout is a Victorian-designed estate with back-to-back terraces, which means there are a number of alleyways.

"If one was probably to count I’d say there are probably around 100 different cross sections.

“In this local area it’s very difficult to have a camera on every junction and some of those alleyways don’t have the supporting infrastructure to enable us to position those cameras.”

Eastcott ward councillor Imtiyaz Shaikh, who has previously organised clear-ups of Broadgreen, urged the borough council to install more CCTV cameras and challenge offenders: “I’d definitely say the problem is not getting any better at all, despite members of the community coming together and clearing it.

“Unfortunately, we don’t see much action taken from the council, despite highlighting the real issues.

“Prosecution is a must. People are not getting prosecuted. There’s no action taken, despite us having the proof. They’re getting away with it.”