A RESIDENT is threatening Bolton Council with legal action over litter at Seven Acres Country Park.

Christopher Banks, from Breightmet, wrote to the council’s chief executive last week giving notice of his intention to make a complaint to Bolton Magistrates’ Court.

In the letter addressed to Tony Oakman, Mr Banks said: “I hope that you will take the necessary action to meet your legal duties. Failing that, I shall go ahead and make an application for a summons.”

Today, if no action is taken by the council, Mr Banks will ask the court to issue an order requiring the council to comply with its duty under Section 89 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to keep council land clean.

Mr Banks, aged 36, said that he first submitted a complaint on February 22 asking the council to deal with litter at Seven Acres and Monks Lane.

Despite the council saying that action would be taken to address the issues in a response dated March 26, Mr Banks said that this did not happen.

Mr Banks has been chairman of Bolton North East Wildlife Trail since 2015 and previously managed Seven Acres Country Park as a volunteer leader which involved clearing fly-tipping and litter.

He said: “No matter how much we removed, there would always be fly-tipping into the local nature reserve.”

Mr Banks visited Seven Acres earlier this month with local volunteers as part of Breightmet Litter Pickers and removed 40 bags of fly-tipping which “barely scratched the surface”, he said.

A spokesman for Bolton At Home said: “Our enforcement team work in partnership with the council to issue fixed penalty notices, warnings, or pursue prosecutions.

“Bolton At Home does not have powers to prosecute but can use its tenancy agreements to take enforcement action against those responsible.”

Anyone complaining against a local authority not complying with their duty to remove litter is required to give the authority at least five days’ written notice of their intention to make a complaint.

Mr Banks said that he previously issued a five-day notification of his intent to pursue a litter abatement order for land at Raikes Lane, but in that case, the council cleared the land within five days of that notification.

The “aggrieved” resident said that he did not want to submit a litter abatement order to the court.

He said: “It's not something I want to do, it could leave me out of pocket.”

A council spokesperson said: “The council endeavours to clean the borough as far as practically possible given the resources available.”

Bolton At Home added: “Should a tenant or member of the public wish to report fly-tipping to us, they can contact us on 01204 328000.”