A Bradford recycling company says persistent fly-tipping is blighting its business.

Rubbish dumpers have been using the area surrounding John Hornby and Sons, based on Birkshall Lane, Bradford, for the past few years.

Staff have often arrived for work to find several tonnes of waste blocking their gates.

The area has been targeted by Environment Agency officers using covert cameras to try and catch fly-tippers in the act.

Now bosses at the company fear that they will be left with the clean-up bill after becoming embroiled in a dispute with Bradford Council over who is responsible for the land's upkeep.

Company director Stephen Hilas said: "We have not had the street cleared since before Christmas - there are days when we have had to actually push the rubbish away from the gates first thing in the morning so that wagons can get in and out.

"I have been told by the Council on two or three occasions that they would be sending someone out to clear away the waste but nobody has shown up.

"Now I have been told that the responsibility for the clean-up is ours and neighbouring businesses.

"I do not understand how they can have spent so much money in clearing up the area for the past few months and yet turn around now and say that no longer have a duty to do it.

"The council claim they have let me know about this in a letter they sent in July but I have not received any such letter."

The dispute appears to have arisen from the blocking off of the street at one end, near to the railway underpass at Birkland Street.

The closing of this street raises the issue of whether or not the land is public any more.

"They have said it is the responsibility of us and other businesses that neighbour the street to clear the mess. But we are the only business that actually use the street, all the others just back onto it and the state of it does not affect them at all."

Cracking down on fly-tipping is one of the central themes of Telegraph & Argus' Bin it for Bradford campaign.

Damian Fisher, Bradford Council's Principal Officer for Street Scene, said: "We will continue to clean the road until the issue of ownership has been sorted out."