AROUND three bin bags of rubbish, including broken glass and cans, were dumped onto Brickfield Park over the weekend.

Cllr Tony Higgins (LAB – Fairfield and Howley) was alerted to the waste by a concerned resident and took to the park in the rain on Monday to clean it up.

He filled three bin bags up to leave the site in a safe condition but hit out at the culprit for leaving residents, especially youngsters, at risk.

“The mess was absolutely horrendous – someone had just come to the park and dumped the mess,” he said.

“The three bin bags I filled up were full of broken glass, nappies, cans and bottles – it was a hazard and is just mindless behaviour, children could have got hurt if it stayed how it was and they were playing near it.

“It looked as though the person who did it had excess rubbish and thought to come to the park to leave it there.

“I was there for more than an hour but didn’t take enough bin bags so asked a nearby resident for one and he kindly gave me one.”

Littering and fly-tipping costs the council more than £600,000 a year but Cllr Higgins, who is the chairman of building stronger communities in the town, has called on residents to play their part and join forces to tackle out the problem.

“We need to get to grips with this – if anybody sees anyone fly-tipping, don’t be frightened to report it," he added.

“It can be dealt with in confidence and it will stay anonymous.

“The fact of the matter is if I had not cleaned it up then it would have cost the council to get somebody out to do it.

"We are working on bringing new play equipment here and want to make it as safe as possible for children and clear of vandalism, fly-tipping and litter."