![\"Alan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_M53-flytipping.jpg\")
Alan Howgate feels like he is getting nowhere(Image: Copyright Unknown)<\/p>\nIt’s been left there so long vegetables have started growing out of itAlan Howgate feels like he is getting nowhere(Image: Copyright Unknown)<\/p>\n
A mountain of waste dumped under the M53<\/a> has been there so long it is now being described as an allotment. The Environment Agency said an investigation is still ongoing.<\/p>\n At around 9am on March 6, Alan Howgate was walking under the M53 with his dog Bryn when he spotted a lorry dumping tonnes of waste near the railway tracks on the Merseyrail<\/a> New Brighton<\/a> line under the motorway. The area is close to the Bidston Moss nature reserve as well as the Junction One retail park.<\/a><\/p>\n Mr Howgate immediately began taking photographs and phoned the police on 999 at the scene <\/a>as well as reporting it to Wirral<\/a> Council. These pictures, previously seen by the ECHO<\/a>, show at least five lorry loads of processed rubbish left there, as well as one photo of the lorry at the scene.<\/p>\n Despite being underneath a public highway, the land is understood to be privately owned. If land is privately owned, it is the responsibility of the landowners to remove rubbish, though local authorities can take enforcement action.<\/p>\n Clearing away any fly-tipping and disposing of it properly can cost a council a lot of money which it may not be able to get back.<\/p>\n However six months later, the waste is still at the site.<\/a> After rain, some piles have been left for so long hundreds of tomatoes, melons, wheat, and a whole array of different vegetables have started growing out of it.<\/p>\n This lack of action has prompted frustration and complaints from both Mr Howgate as well as Steve Taylor who runs a local litter picking group<\/a>. Mr Howgate told the ECHO:<\/a> \u201cIt\u2019s like a game of musical rubbish and it\u2019s not going anywhere.<\/p>\n \u201cThe hours and hours I am spending trying to get something to be done about it and I am getting close to the point of giving up myself. Other people have been down this road and given up and I can see why.<\/p>\n \u201cYou try to do good. You think you are doing good but you are not getting anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Taylor said he wanted an update on the case, adding: \u201cIt makes me feel exasperated especially with all the effort we put in with what we do here.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s just abandoned and left to be littered, it becomes the norm. People then do it all the time. It\u2019s very disappointing to come across. We have put in major efforts to try to clear a lot of dumped rubbish ourselves.<\/p>\n \u201cYou see this, which is beyond our capacity, and the council, the Environment Agency, just walk away from it. It seems like both parties are saying it\u2019s not our job and this becomes a dumping ground.\u201d<\/p>\n An Environment Agency spokesperson said: \u201cOur investigation into waste being dumped under the M53 motorway near Bidston on the Wirral is ongoing. We are working with Greater Manchester and Merseyside Police to co-ordinate this investigation effectively.<\/p>\n \u201cWe remain grateful to those members of the public who reported this to us. People can call our incident line on 0800 80 70 60 to report waste crime.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s been left there so long vegetables have started growing out of itAlan Howgate feels like he is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,728,4884,179,285,16,15,8881,9313],"class_list":{"0":"post-455210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wirral","17":"tag-wirral-council"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Alan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758971839_802_0_M53-flytipping.jpg\")
Alan Howgate showing off some of the tomatoes that now cover several of the flytipping piles(Image: Copyright Unknown)<\/p>\n![\"Steve](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758971840_929_0_M53-flytipping.jpg\")
Steve Taylor and Alan Howgate want to see action over rubbish left dumped under the M53(Image: Copyright Unknown)<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758971841_802_0_M53-flytipping.jpg\")
An investigation is still ongoing into the incident(Image: Copyright Unknown)<\/p>\n