A NURSERY owner has hit out at fly-tippers who have ‘tainted the reputation’ of her business by repeatedly dumping piles of rubbish outside.

Jamie-Lee Davies, who runs the Secret Garden Day Nursery in Sudell Road, Darwen, said she was ‘furious’ that more action had not been taken to remove bags full of items such as sanitary towels and nappies outside the fire exit of her nursery.

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Mrs Davies, who has a young daughter, said she had called Blackburn with Darwen Council five times since October to try to sort out the issue, but the rubbish is still appearing.

She said: “The same person has been leaving this rubbish every time as they have left letters in the rubbish with their name on.

“We use this fire exit as an entrance for parents with prams as it’s right next to the car park, but at the moment I’m having to tell them to come in a different way, which is more awkward.

“After such a good Ofsted report recently I feel like this is tainting our reputation. We’ve had people come to the nursery interested and then not called back, I can only assume this is because of the rubbish.

“There is all sorts of rubbish being left including sanitary towels and nappies which I do not want children seeing. I’m also concerned there could be rats there. I’m furious.”

The nursery was rated by Ofsted as ‘good’ in its first inspection earlier this year being praised for being ‘highly responsive’ to the interests of the children and developing ‘strong bonds’ with both the children and the parents.

Mrs Davies’ complaints come after an epidemic of fly-tipping hit back alleys in the Marsh House ward of the town last month.

Borough councillor Jane Oates, assistant executive member for environment, said she sees the case at the nursery as an urgent matter.

She said: “I haven’t been made aware of this issue but I will go out and have a look at this flytipping. I will make myself known to Mrs Davies as I believe with children involved, this is something we need to urgently sort.

“It’s horrendous the level of fly tipping at the moment but we are putting our foot down . If Mrs Davies has details of who is doing this I would urge her to keep them and we can look into prosecuting.”