A crackdown on selfish fly-tippers is long overdue with current penalties not enough to deter them

Rats scurry off when footsteps approach, burrowing their grimy way into abandoned mattresses and bin bags bulging with builders’ waste and rotting food.

Drive a few miles out of the town centre and every few yards along certain country lanes, someone will have dumped a bag of something unmentionable, a sofa spilling out its guts, a broken bicycle or an item so degraded it’s become unrecognisable.

And it’s not just Barnsley. Across our region, whether in a fancy village, brand-new housing estate or back lane, unlawful rubbish is piling up.

Take a look on any one of those online neighbourhood forums and you’ll see ‘dumping’ and ‘fly-tipping’ right at the top of the discussion boards.

We’re all sick of it. And failure by the authorities to deal with it is making us sick and tired of waiting for something to be done, once and for all.