COUNCILLORS and officers have visited one of Oldham's fly-tipping hotspots as a part of the fight to stop dumped rubbish blighting streets.

Council leader, Cllr Arooj Shah, has made cracking down on fly-tippers her top priority and has tasked officers with determining what extra resources can be used to tackle the problem.

Cllr Shah, chief executive Dr Carolyn Wilkins OBE and councillors Dr Zahid Chauhan OBE, Shaid Mushtaq and mayor Jenny Harrison went out to the Villa Road area in Hathershaw yesterday to see the mess being caused by discarded waste.

Cllr Shah said: “Everyone in Oldham should feel good about where they live but when people drop litter or, even worse, discard things like old sofas, it leaves our streets looking unloved. “While our street cleaning team do a great job, and we prosecute fly-tippers whenever possible, it sometimes seems like they’re swimming against the tide.

“I thought it was important to show our senior officers the state some of our streets are in.

“Ultimately we need to see behaviour change from those who show disregard for our borough, and cleaning up will be a real community effort.

"We already have lots of great community groups doing their bit, but I want the council to be taking a leading role.

“We can’t sit in the civic centre and hope things change on their own.”