OLDHAM'S Conservative group is calling for a crackdown on fly tippers dumping their rubbish across the town.

To underline the scourge of dumpers, they have collated numerous examples of tipping blighting the borough.

The group is blaming the reduction in bin collections to once every three weeks and restrictions on how many times people can use the tip for contributing to the problem.

And they are calling for the reinstatement of fortnightly bin collections, a crackdown on fly tippers, both large and small, and extra investment into streat cleaning teams to get on top of the problem.

Conservative group leader Cllr John Hudson said: "We all deserve to live in a clean environment, but with changes to bin collections and restrictions on how many times people can go to the tip, it will only add to the problem.

He went on: "We need to deter people from doing it in the first place. We need a crackdown with more prosecutions and big fines.

"Perhaps fly tippers will only stop if we put them to work cleaning up our borough. It may not be legally possible, but people are sick to the back teeth of fly tippers dumping rubbish in our borough.

"People pay sky-high council tax rates and fly tippers are taking away vital funds from important local services to clear up their mess."

In response, Oldham Council leader Sean Fielding said accused the Conservative group of making "misleading statements for cheap political gain that might actually encourage fly tipping".

He said that at every day the authority was fighting to "take on selfish people who blight our borough by dumping rubbish and commercial waste."

He went on: "We’re seeing results. Having boosted our street cleaning team we’ve been rated four out of five by Keep Britain Tidy, and over the last few years we’ve prosecuted dozens of people for fly tipping.

“It doesn’t help when people put out misleading statements for cheap political gain that might actually encourage fly tipping. As the Conservatives have been told repeatedly, residents can still visit the tip with domestic waste as many times as they like, and there won’t even be any checks until you’ve been more than 52 times in a year! So please do continue to use the tip when you need to.

“Despite having the opportunity to do so, the Conservatives have never brought a proposal to the council for how they would pay for additional bin collections. When our budgets have been cut by more than 60% by the government we need to be clear that more bin collections means further cuts to other vital services.”