A MOUND of mattresses, black bags and suitcases have been dumped on the roadside near Bicester, as figures reveal a significant rise in fly-tipping in the area.

The latest statistics showed fewer than two per cent of fly-tippers in Cherwell in the past year have been fined.

Fly tips such as the most recent found in Bucknell are being investigated after just nine prosecutions were made last year out of 558 fly tips.

This number has risen significantly from 447 cases the previous year and as a resulted in council bosses in Cherwell have opted to issue tougher penalties.

Cherwell District Council's executive has brought in on-the-spot fines of up to £250 for small fly tips.

Lead member for clean and green Debbie Pickford said: "I don’t think there is a particular reason why the number has risen.

"Some years it goes up, others it goes down.

"It is very difficult to catch these people doing it and I would ask everybody if you see any fly tips to see if there is any information which could be reported and help find the culprit.

"It is not always to big fly tips but the smaller offences where people drop it over garden fences or on footpaths.

"It is pure laziness, not a very nice way to behave and most of all costs a fortune to the taxpayer."

The council said two fines have been handed out over the past week including a case in Kidlington where someone had left boxes outside a recycling bank, another mound of black sacks on the outskirts of Bicester.

A large fly tip in Weston-on-the-Green is still being investigated.

A resident of Ambrosden, near Bicester, who asked to remain anonymous, said she has had to deal with a large fly tip outside her home for at least two months.

She said: "It is disgusting, it is like being on a landfill site.

"It has been there for months now and I am just fed up of seeing it every time I open my curtains.

"It is now attracting rats and I have a young daughter so it's not nice if I want to let her play outside in our garden."

Over the past year a resident was prosecuted after a passerby caught him fly-tipping and filmed him on their camera phone as he dumped fencing slats, conifer cuttings and a tree trunk at The Link in Banbury.

Another case saw 30 bags of rubbish weighing a massive 880kg dumped near Hardwick Lock Field Bridge on the outskirts of Banbury.

Ms Pickford added: "The biggest bugbear is that most the time people have to have a vehicle to take whatever rubbish they are dumping, so why can't they take it in that vehicle to the tip?

"None of us like fly tipping and I don’t expect the people doing it would like to see that sort of thing on their doorstep either."