COPELAND Borough Council has been working with the BBC to highlight the area's issues with flytipping after dealing with hundreds of cases in the last year.

Authorities across the country are cracking down on illegal dumping as litter and rubbish continue to blight our streets and countryside.

Earlier this year, the government introduced a new on-the-spot penalty to anyone caught in the act and bosses at Copeland Borough Council are hoping this will help clean up the streets.

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Janice Carol, waste and enforcement manager at Copeland Borough Council, said: “Our street cleaning team dealt with 391 incidents of fly tipping in 2015-16.

"While Copeland experiences low numbers of incidents compared to the national average, many of these are left in roadside verges in picturesque locations.

"Fly tipping is illegal and unsightly and can be detrimental to the environment and to the reputation of our borough."

Copeland Borough Council agreed to help BBC with its Inside Out documentary on Monday night to try and raise awareness about the issue which is blighting communities in the area.

Flytipping and littering is a particular bug-bear in Millom where councillors are constantly battling the issue.

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Millom town councillor Jack Park believes fly-tipping to be a real problem in the town and is calling for perpetrators to be named and shamed.

He said: "It has started to get worse especially at the RSPB site at Hodbarrow. We've had an armchair, shopping trolley and they've started to drop some big bags of rubbish where we park our cars as well.

"But it's not just there – right through the town we can see traces of fly-tipping."

Both Millom Town Council and Copeland Borough Council remain committed to tackling flytipping but Cllr Park believes a firmer hand is needed.

He said: "We're putting up a sign at the playground at the end of Albert Street. Whether or not it'll work we'll have to see.

"It all comes down to laziness. Some people go to the tip and find that it's closed and can't be bothered to take their rubbish back home so just dump it.

"It does put the town in a bad light but it is a national problem. I think more serious punishments need to be in place.

"Anyone caught should be named and shamed in the media so other people will think twice about doing it."

Fellow town councillor Ruth Peter agrees with Cllr Park and says there is "no excuse" for people who dump their rubbish.

She said: "My husband used to work for the RSPB and I know that flytipping for him was major, major problem and I know there have been problems there since.

"I can't see why people who have got rubbish can't either sort it out with the binmen or just sort it out themselves by going to the tip.

"I know there have been been problems with the tip in the past but recent it has got much better.

"There really is no excuse."