PERSISTENT fly-tipping has become an eyesore for residents and a headache for police trying to track who is behind the dumping.

Items including barrels of cooking oil, cartons and boxes have been dumped in an alleyway off Beatrice Street and Gorse Hill residents have said it is not the first time it has happened.

Neighbourhood police are investigating who is responsible for the dumping and have appealed for information from locals and urged them to report if they see anyone leaving rubbish in the area.

PC Stacey McGarry, community beat manager for the area, said many of the items dumped could be recycled and clearing it up was a waste of Swindon Council and police time.

She said: “Someone is doing it persistently and it looks like industrial or commercial waste. “There are industrial-sized containers of oil and a large amount of waste which looks like it‘s from a restaurant.

“There are cartons, boxes and plastics and so a lot of it can be recycled.

“It really is a waste of our time and the council’s time to tidy it up and investigate it when it could be taken to the recycling centre.

“The neighbours report being fed up with it because it is an eyesore and it is in the immediate entrance to Gorse Hill so anyone who enters will see it.

“I would urge anyone who sees anything to contact us so we can get to the bottom of who is dumping the rubbish and try and stop it.”

Morris Small, 71, of nearby Poulton Street, said he was fed up with items being dumped and making the area look untidy.

He said: “There is a lot of it and it has been going on for years. “The poor road sweeper from the council has to keep coming out and picking it all up.

“I think someone is going up the back of the shops and picking up the oil drums and then piling them up in the alleyway. “They leave it in piles and then the council clears it away and then it piles up again – it just keeps happening.

“People are fed up with it now.”

Anyone with any information should contact PC McGarry on 101 or on swindonwestnpt@wiltshire.pnn.police.uk.

There is also a meeting which will discuss the issues of flytipping and others in the Gorse Hill area.

It will be held next Monday night at 7pm in the Community Centre in Chapel Street.