CLEAN-up campaigns have been pledged along the Leeds Liverpool Canal in Burnley and Pendle after it was revealed that waterway chiefs spend up to £40,000 each year tackling fly-tipping along towpaths.

Abandoned shopping trolleys, bikes and prams, traffic cones, takeaway wrappers and car tyres frequently clog the banks of the canal, which runs through the neighbouring boroughs, and the Brun and Calder rivers in Burnley.

British Waterway chiefs have told councillors that it spends between £15,000 and £20,000 cleaning 20 to 25 tons of rubbish from the canal banks in Pendle each year, and similar figures are believed to be spent in Burnley.

A British Waterways official said: “This work is carried out by a small direct labour workforce, based in Burnley, and operating from a boat equipped with a lifting aid.

“They work one week in every two removing litter and debris from both the towpath and the water.”

Litter and dog waste bins are provided for the public alongside the canal. Particular problems have also been observed along the Straight Mile stretch of the waterway in Burnley.

Last year a clean-up initiative was launched by Lib Dem cabinet member Coun Charlie Briggs and backed by Burnley Labour MP Kitty Ussher, who joined a litter pick day there.

Councillors in Pendle have also promised to work with British Waterways to prosecute fly-tippers wherever possible across Nelson, Colne and West Craven.

Similar problems also affected the Calder and Brun rivers, which snake their way through Burnley town centre.

Historian Steve Chapples, who has walked the banks of the Brun and Calder, said: “I was shocked to find both filled with rubbish, ranging from supermarket trolleys, traffic cones and road barriers to the usual glass and plastic bottles, aluminium cans, polystryrene food trays, bicycles, prams, car tyres and countless recyclable items.”

The Burnley clean-up has focused on the canal stretch between the town centre and Gannow, and Daneshouse and Stoneyholme.