Piles of rubbish dumped and set alight in Sunderland's Children's Forest

Children's toys and a pile of rubbish bags have been dumped and set alight in a popular Sunderland green space.
The flytipped rubbish was then set alightThe flytipped rubbish was then set alight
The flytipped rubbish was then set alight

The Children’s Forest , which lies off Hylton Road between Pennywell and South Hylton, has become a hot spot for flytipping in recent years.

In the most recent case, bags of rubbish were dumped and then set alight and the grassy area has been left strewn with children's toys and furniture.

The rubbish was dumped in Sunderland's Children's ForestThe rubbish was dumped in Sunderland's Children's Forest
The rubbish was dumped in Sunderland's Children's Forest
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People who used the site regularly to walk their dogs say they have been left horrified and angered by the tipping.

The pictures were taken yesterday evening by an anonymous reader. She said she first saw the items dumped on Sunday and the next days bags with papers in had been set alight.

She said: "It's horrible that people can ruin such a lovely area with stuff like this.

"It happens all the time. You can see the tyre marks from where someone has driven up and just dumped it all."

Echo clean streets campaignEcho clean streets campaign
Echo clean streets campaign
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The latest incident comes as the Echo continues its Clean Streets campaign, which is calling on Wearsiders to take more care of their personal rubbish and also report any incidents of fly-tipping or rubbish dumping.

By doing so, Sunderland will be a cleaner, brighter and more welcoming place in which to live and work.

A spokesman for Sunderland City Council said: "Polluting our city with rubbish is anti-social and criminal.

"We have been increasing our range of environmental enforcement powers to ensure that we can and do take action against those responsible for fly-tipping and littering.

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"It is simply not acceptable for people to blight our communities or burden council tax payers because of their irresponsible actions.

"Anyone with information should report fly-tipping and if we all work together we can help stop it.

"You can report fly-tipping at Sunderland.gov.uk or on 0191 520 5550."