AN East Lancashire beauty spot is being turned into an ‘eyesore’ after Christmas trees and rubbish were left abandoned at the site.

Blackburn with Darwen Council placed a “Christmas tree recycling point” sign and a skip near to Pleasington playing fields.

The skip was taken away last week, however several rotting trees and household waste have been dumped at the site. Council bosses said they were in the process of clearing the area but called on people to stop illegally flytipping.

Livesey with Pleasington ward councillor Derek Hardman called for the sign to be removed to avoid confusion.

The Conservative coun-cillor said: “I know the skip was there for a set period after Christmas.

“If the trees were left overflowing from the skip then they should have been removed at the same time.

“However if they have been put there since then they should be removed as quickly as possible because if people are starting to dump rubbish there as well it will become an eyesore.

“If the sign is still up tell-ing people they can recycle their trees at that point then that needs to be taken down as well.”

Tree recycling is a simple way to bring a renewable and natural source back to the environment – and not the landfill, where decomp-osition rates are slowed due to lack of oxygen.

Councillor Alan Cottam, executive member for regen-eration and environment, said: "The Christmas tree collection service has been a great success this year.

“We have taken away three loads of trees from the site at Pleasington alone this month and are now in the process of tidying up the area.

"Unfortunately, people do illegally fly tip and leave bags of rubbish at the site as well.

“We would like to remind people that this site was for Christmas trees only and they should take any extra bags to the household waste recycling centre."

Real Christmas trees can be recycled in a variety of ways. They are commonly turned into mulch and used in landscaping and gard-ening or chipped and used for hiking trails and paths..

The tree recycling campaign is an important one as they are also used for lake and river shoreline stabilization and fish and wildlife habitat.