Shropshire Star

Rubbish problem could hurt Ludlow's bloom competition entry

Ludlow's bid to take a title in the forthcoming Heart of England in Bloom competition could be scuppered due to thoughtless rubbish dumping, leading councillors have said.

Published
Councillors Liv Parry and Andy Boddington

Councillors Andy Boddington and Viv Parry were both dismayed to find a pile of 'stinking rubbish and packaging' which had been dumped on the town's Castle Street car park.

There was food waste, plastic bottles, cartons and packaging for items sent via Royal Mail which still included the recipients' names and addresses.

Councillor Boddington said: "The real shock is that some of this material is addressed to people who I thought were responsible and working in the best interests of Ludlow. Fly-tipping is utterly irresponsible and if the council decides to act the perpetrators could face substantial fines.

"We are a beautiful town. Our car parks might not be as beautiful as the historic streets but they should be clean and tidy, not piled up high with debris. People who say they are promoting our town seem to be desecrating it.

"Councillor Parry rang me about this festering heap. She said that the spate of fly-tipping could affect the town’s rating in the Heart of England in Bloom competition. Ludlow consistently wins gold in the competition which is judged in the next few weeks. Piles of black plastic bags containing festering rubbish and cardboard boxes will not impress the judges.

"I spent half an hour sifting through the bags looking for evidence. Don’t councillors just have the best jobs in the world?

"I find this incident worse than many others of late because some of this debris can be identified as coming from a cause I support. I am left in a quandary here. If I name the cause, I might threaten any action by Shropshire Council. If I don’t people might come to the wrong conclusion. It would be better if the perpetrators owned up and cleared the rubbish away.

"There is no excuse in law if the waste generator did not know the waste was to end up in this location. In this case I don’t think that argument applies anyway. It was deliberate dumping of waste that should have been recycled or taken to Craven Arms."

Shropshire Council has now given instructions for the waste to be cleared.

Councillor Boddington added: "There are many more important things that the council’s diminished finances could be spent on than by having to deal with irresponsible behaviour by Ludlow events and residents."