A KEIGHLEY man has reached the end of his tether over the repeated dumping of waste onto his land.

Roy Johnson, 65, of Goose Cote Lane, said he had been coping with the problem for years, but added that it has worsened recently with five bin bags full of domestic rubbish – including decaying food – being thrown onto his property last week.

"I just can't understand the mentality of the people who are doing it," he said. "I don't want any confrontation with anyone at my age, I just want them to stop doing it."

Mr Johnson, who has a business which repairs and manufactures loudspeakers, said he had lived at his home for 30 years.

It has the distinctive feature of a very long garden, one side of which runs along the length of Greystones Drive. But the land has become a magnet for persistent flytippers.

Mr Johnson said he thought some of those involved appear to think the property is waste land, and do not realise it forms part of his garden.

"Over the years I've had all sorts dumped on my land, bits of concrete garage, mattresses, chairs, discarded kids' toys and boxes.

"Once a month I walk up this part of my land with a bin liner and fill it with beer bottles, takeaway containers and drinks cups.

"But it was the last straw when I had five bin bags of household rubbish dumped on the land last week.

"I tidied that up myself, though it wasn't very nice as the bags had split open and I was having to clean up half eaten dinners, razors and cosmetics bottles."

Mr Johnson said he was grateful to Bradford Council for coming out and collecting this latest load of dumped material, once he had removed it from his own garden.

But he said he understood the flytipping problem in the district had worsened since the district council's new policy of only normal household waste and recyclable rubbish on alternate weeks.

He said the fact that this flytipping is on his own, private land means he has to take responsibility for clearing it up, even though it isn't his fault.

A Bradford Council spokesman responded: “Flytipping is a national problem. In 2015/16 local authorities dealt with 936,000 flytipping incidents, a four per cent increase over the previous year.

“Bradford Council flytipping figures are collated month by month and assessed at the year end.

“At the moment we're unable to assess if there's been an increase or decrease in instances of flytipping since the introduction in May 2017 of alternate week bin collections in Keighley.

“Most local authorities in the country work on an alternate weekly collection system.

“Flytipping is illegal as well as anti-social. That’s why we do our best to find evidence to prosecute the people who do it.

“Our Environmental Enforcement Team use all possible means of gathering evidence, including searching the waste and speaking to any eye witnesses to enable prosecution.

“If rubbish is tipped on council land we clean it up as soon as possible and try to ensure private landowners do the same.

“We're working with communities to encourage recycling and to change attitudes to discourage flytipping.”

Anyone with information about flytippers can call the council’s Environmental Enforcement team on 01274 434366, or e-mail eh.admin@bradford.gov.uk