Covid lockdown: Amenity sites 'should reopen to stop fly-tipping'

Broken-up furniture and other household waste was found by police at Eairy Cushlin

Civic amenity sites on the Isle of Man should be reopened during lockdown to prevent fly tipping, an anti-litter campaigner has said.

All four of the island's facilities closed when the island entered its third lockdown on 3 March to "protect staff and the public" from Covid-19.

Beach Buddies founder Bill Dale said the sites could operate safely if precautions were taken.

It follows an incident of fly tipping at an island beauty spot.

Isle of Man Police said the dumping of broken-up furniture and other household waste at Eairy Cushlin, a remote area in the west of the island, was "absolutely shocking".

A spokesman for the force said investigations into the incident were ongoing.

Police described the dumping of rubbish at the beauty spot as "shocking"

A third lockdown began amid a surge in new coronavirus cases and there are now 580 people on the island who have tested positive for the virus.

During previous lockdowns, amenity sites operated by the island's local authorities were required to close by law.

However, a change in the rules ahead of the current restrictions allowed operators to choose whether or not to open.

While the closure of the facilities was "no reason" to carelessly discard waste in the countryside, Mr Dale said he could not see "any plausible reason for the sites to be closed".

"Even in normal times, the people who visit the sites are not standing close to each other, and they are certainly a considerable distance further apart than standing in a supermarket queue, so social distancing is clearly not an issue," he added.

In a previous statement, Douglas Council said the Eastern Civic Amenity site had been closed "due to the increasing number of community cases of Covid-19, in order to protect council staff and to discourage people from leaving their homes for non-essential reasons".