AN ILKLEY businessman has hit out at the "outrageous" dumping of bags of dog dirt just yards from his business off a busy Ilkley street.

Vernon Young, owner of Pitscards in Leeds Road, arrived at his business on Friday morning to discover bags of dog dirt left littering neighbouring Victory Road, and recently-emptied bins from nearby houses left scattered across the street.

He moved the bins out of the way, where they were obstructing the pavement, but found the bags of dog mess has been left in amongst them. There had been a refuse collection by Bradford Council that morning.

Mr Young is concerned the bags may have been left by council refuse collectors or even picked out of the bins and thrown down on the pavement.

But the council says it had no policy of sorting through rubbish on the streets where it makes collections.

The bags were not far from the ground floor door to Mr Young's business premises, as well as on a residential street.

He said: “This is a step too far.

"To pull dog dirt bags out of the bins and toss them on the pavements is absolutely appalling. It is outrageous.”

"I was just gobsmacked," he added. "One of the bins hadn't been emptied fully. I was just trying to rearrange the bins because there's quite a few mums live up that road, and they were in the way."

Mr Young says council refuse collectors often leave the bins in disarray, but he has never seen dog dirt removed from them before. He wanted to know why council staff had not picked up the mess if the bags were dropped accidentally.

A spokesman for Bradford Council confirmed there is no policy of sorting through or removing waste from bins.

lWhat do you think? We welcome letters on this or any other subject. E-mail richard.parker@nqyne.co.uk or write to the Content Editor, Gazette and Observer, 38 High Street, Skipton BD23 1JU. Please include your full name, address and daytime telephone number.