Volunteers clean up 'eyesore' fly-tipped rubbish

Mummified rats, bank cards and a bath-tub were some of the items found during a volunteer-led clean up after a pile of fly-tipped rubbish created an "eyesore" in a Somerset town.

About 40 volunteers in Glastonbury have been involved in clearing up the site by the A39 and Red Brick Building after more than three years of rubbish building up on a disused car park.

Local councillor Ewan Cameron said: "At its height, the rubbish was about 5-5.5ft (1.5-1.7m) high and 30 metres in diameter. The rodents and the smell were talked about by many people.

"We're now getting rid of that, we'll be returning it back to a car park and hopefully we'll then be able to manage it going forward."

The community clean-up was organised by Andy Denham, who started a fundraiser and raised £1,500 to hire a skip and digger.

He said: "It's been an incredible effort.

"After years of going past this and watching the fly-tipping going on, I just decided it needed to go and I've now organised it to go.

"We've done a fundraiser, paid for the skip and other people and all my family are here."

The land is owned by the Red Brick Building and therefore not under Somerset Council's authority to clean up.

James Hobson and Wendy Robinson, tenants at the Red Brick Building, were among the volunteers who helped clear the rubbish up.

Hobson said: "I've seen the Red Brick Building back in its heyday when this car park was a car park and not a dump. It's been very depressing to see it on a day-to-day basis.

"The community have been very vocal on how it looks and it's an eyesore. It's been a real mission to get back to what it was."

Robinson said: "We've found three fridge-freezers, a bathtub, rubble, building materials - it's evident people have just dumped whatever they want here."

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