Some 400 garages and tyre dealers in Bradford are being urged by environmental watchdogs to dispose of their waste tyres legally.

Yesterday the Telegraph & Argus reported a raid of two illicit waste tyre sites in the city which held a total of 22,000 tyres.

And fire chiefs have warned that the two dumps were a deadly disaster waiting to happen.

The Environment Agency - which is responsible for environmental incidents relating to air, land and water - has written to about 400 businesses in the city urging them to dispose of their waste properly.

Stuart Jenkinson, enforcement team leader for the agency, said: "We have written to garages, MoT testing stations and tyre dealers and fitters to remind them of the statutory requirements in disposing of tyres generated by their businesses.

"We have found that bogus tyre disposal operators are trawling round these businesses and taking business away from the legitimate sector."

Official operators have to carry a waste transfer certificate which is issued by the Agency.

Bogus tyre operators collect waste tyres for a fraction of the cost of legal disposal and then rent land and warehouses in the city to dump them. They then disappear without trace, leaving a mountain of tyres behind.

David Holmes, owner of Crest Tyre Company, Spencer Road, Lidget Green, said he was regularly visited by people posing as legitimate waste disposal operators. "I ask them for their certificate and they always say they haven't got it on them. There's no way I'd let a tyre out of here without knowing where it was going."

Tyre fitter Howard Lupton at Oak Lane Tyres, Edderthorpe Street, Bradford, said: "We take our own waste tyres to a landfill site and it costs us about 45p a tyre. It can be expensive but it's worth it and better than receiving a fine for illegal disposal."

The Environment Agency has teamed up with Bradford fire services to crack down on the offenders.

l If anyone knows of any tyre dumps they can contact the agency's hotline on 0800 80 70 60.

e-mail: carolyne.coyle@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.