FLY-tippers dumped a mountain of used clothes at a country park.

Volunteers braved the wet and freezing weather to move the mound of rubbish from the site next to Cutacre country park.

The pile, made up of clothes, shoes, and hats, was dumped at the site on Friday. It is not known where it came from.

Members of the Over Hulton community group and the Atherton Environmental Project spent several hours at the park on Friday clearing rubbish bags full of clothes.

John Bullen, from Over Hulton community group is one of the volunteers that took part, along with Cllrs Karen Aldred and Martin Aldred. He said: “It went very well, several volunteers turned up. It looked like a charity shop with the amount of clothes that we found. We found clothes, shoes, hats and bags.

"I hope that we never have to do it again because it is such a crime to destroy the community. As we were clearing away the rubbish, joggers and dog walkers said what a great job it was we were doing. We even got a cheer when we finished."

Two tractors had to be used to remove the bin bags of rubbish, supplied by Harworth Estates.

Jan Fletcher, also a member of the community group assisted in the clear up. She said: “I took part because when you see something like that it spoils it for everyday people.

When we’d finished I felt euphoric, like we’d scored a minor victory because at least someone was doing something about it.”

Bolton Council’s Cabinet member for the environment, Cllr Nick Peel said any form of fly-tipping is “unacceptable.”

He said: “Whether it is on council land or private land as in this case, there is always a financial cost and a social cost when people tip like this.

“This is one of the more unusual cases I have seen and without jumping to conclusions it could be a case where someone has taken advantage of a person’s good will who may have collected the clothing for charity.

“This has been dumped in a country park and will spoil people’s enjoyment of that area and it is unacceptable.”

Last month, The Bolton News reported that in the past 12 months, the council has issued 94 fixed penalty notices for lower-level fly-tipping offences and taken 42 people to court for more serious waste related matters.

We also revealed in July this year how piles of clothes had been dumped on Gorton Street, Bolton. Staff from the Mencap charity shop in Chorley Old Road believed the clothes may have been taken from their premises.