Supermarket urged to clear fly tipping 'grot spot'

A resident living near a fly tipping "grot spot" has called on a supermarket chain to clean up a "humungous" amount of what is believed to be foam insulation that was dumped there several months ago.

Abigail Spurrier said the "disgusting" waste in the car park of Morrisons on Boundary Way in St Helens was "not pleasant to live nearby".

She said the car park was blighted by an increasing amount of rubbish - with a bed and a mattress among items dumped there - and for it to have remained for up to six months was not only encouraging other fly tippers but also risked more rats in the area.

Morrisons has been contacted by the BBC for comment while St Helens Council said it was private land.

Spurrier, 35, said Morrisons should clear up the "grot spot" for the good of the local community and the environment.

"It's really horrible to walk not far past your front door and be confronted by that," she told BBC Radio Merseyside, adding that a dumped bed and mattress had been set on fire.

"Once it happens," Spurrier said of the fly tipping, "it leads to it happening again because there's already rubbish there.

"It just attracts more of it."

Spurrier said the waste was not contained, meaning that it was spreading into the surrounding neighbourhood.

"In the bad weather it gets wet and starts to smell and you don't actually know what is in there either," she explained.

Spurrier, who moved to the town from Newton-le-Willows a year ago, said she had been "shocked" by the amount of fly tipping in St Helens.

"There are beautiful parts but it is sad people are dumping litter and can't take pride in where they live."

According to Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) figures, over the last decade (2014-15 to 2024-25) there have been 21,194 fly-tipping incidents in St Helens.

There was a significant increase between 2023 and 2024, when it went up by 1,158 incidents (1,901 to 3,059).

Since then, it has fallen back to 1,366 incidents in 2024-25.

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