A man fighting to get fly-tipping cleared from Helston seven years after it was first highlighted says he is facing "no" at every turn.

Currently dumped on land over the edge of the layby at Sithney Common Hill are an abandoned mattress, a large quantity of used tyres, pillows and old carpet, among the general waste items.

It has been a known issue for at least seven years, since Helston resident Patrick Carroll attended a meeting of Helston Town Council in 2012 asking to get a group of people together to clear the area.

It was at that point it was discovered no one knew who owned the land - and this has been sticking point ever since, despite numerous attempts from the town council to try to find out.

Having noticed that the amount of rubbish appears to have increased recently, one Helston resident has started contacting people in the hope the matter can finally be tackled, but claims he keeps coming up against a wall.

The resident, who asked not to be identified, said: "I'm trying to find any way on getting it cleared up - at the moment, it just seems to end with 'no'.

"I'd be happy getting some personal protective equipment on and clean it myself, but it's counted as theft.

"There are talks of a fence going in, and also a remote CCTV, but the problem needs to be dealt with first."

He said there was a family of deer living nearby and on several occasions he had seen them having to walk through the fly-tipping.

"It doesn't look that bad from the layby, but I've walked below and it's so, so much worse than people think," he added.

Taking up the cause again has been Mike Thomas, the Cornwall councillor whose division the land lies within.

He told the Packet: "I deplore the dumping of rubbish at such places.

"Certainly it is something that needs to be sorted out pretty soon, or it will get worse."

He said his understanding was that Cornwall Council had powers available to them to enter the land in certain circumstances, adding: "I will ask Cornwall Council to clear it and to put a fence up to stop it from being dumped on.

"There are powers that I understand they can use. I will ask whether they are prepared to use those powers to enter the land and get it clear.

"I've got quite a few officers already engaged. It's whether there is any funding that can be utilised."

He said there were a number of suggestions put forward about how to keep the land free from fly-tipping once clear, including a CCTV camera.

This could potentially be provided by the town council, to link into Helston's overall CCTV system that the council pays to have monitored by Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service at Tolvaddon. However, it would depend on whether it was possible to connect to the next closest camera, at the bowling green.

Other options included building the wall to a greater height, to prevent anything being tipped over the top, or adding a green wire mesh fence to prevent any access at all.

Both of these would need financial support from Cornwall Council, along with legal evidence to make sure the work takes place on council-owned land.

A further suggestion had been for volunteer groups to clean the area regularly, but Mr Thomas said volunteers would need the permission from the landowner to access the slope, and the identity of the landowner was not clear.

"I don't want people to take it into their own hands and start clearing it themselves; that gets into dangerous ground over health and safety.

"And I don't want people to speak to people dumping things there, because they're dealing with criminals basically - it's criminal activity," he added.

"I would request that members of the public who observe this taking place to report it on the CC website. Do not in any circumstances confront anybody who is fly-tipping.

"The main thing is, people just shouldn't be doing it [fly-tipping]. If a fence or anything goes up there, then it's yours and my taxes that have paid for that, to stop people behaving deviantly."

A Cornwall Council spokesperson told the Packet: "We can take action against offenders who fly-tip on private land provided we have evidence that can be used to secure a prosecution or serve a fixed penalty notice.

"The responsibility for removing the fly-tipped items from private land would be with the landowner."