BUSINESSES have been urged to not leave unsightly rubbish around bins in one of the busiest tourism hubs in the Lake District.

Photos taken by residents have circulated on social media of the state of a bin pen near St Martin's Parade in Bowness.

The messy area, with rubbish strewn on the floor, is in a section of the village with bars, hotels and restaurants, and is visible from public rights of way. 

The area has been cleaned in the last few days. 

Multiple businesses in the locality use the area to deposit rubbish, which is then collected by Cumbria Waste Group.

The council confirmed it had been in contact with the commercial waste contractors to say that it and its customers should keep the area tidy. 

Sally Parkyn, the clerk for Windermere and Bowness Town Council, shared an update from Westmorland and Furness councillor Dyan Jones, the cabinet member for waste services. 

Cllr Jones wrote: "Westmorland and Furness officers have worked with the trade waste contractor to make improvements to the bin storage area at this location. Credit and thanks to Cumbria Waste Management for their proactive support.

READ MORE: Illegal BBQs and 17 bin bags of rubbish left at The Glebe in Bowness

"Our waste AD has been working with the enforcement team to see how we can proactively address tidiness and cleanliness and duty of care responsibilities in this location, going forward.

"Thanks to Cllr Steve Bavin and others for highlighting."

Commercial collections manager for Cumbria Waste Group Karen Sidgwick said that individual businesses have contracts for how often their waste is taken away per week and that none of them had issues with payments which would cause an overflow of waste due to services being stopped. 

She said: "I agree the bin store looks unsightly, however, I don’t think this is an issue with our services provided, but more the bin store not being adequately maintained. Due to the bin store being shared, I assume ownership and maintenance may not have been a priority.

"Although the maintenance of businesses' bin stores lies on the businesses themselves, I am going to arrange for one of our crews to complete a site clearance of the store, we will sweep out the area and tidy it up. I will also arrange for new bins to be delivered as the bins on site aren’t looking in the best condition, these will be replaced by the end of next week.

"We will also contact the business owners directly and request they keep on top of the bin store going forward to avoid any further issues."

This publication tried to contact businesses using the site that it was aware of.