SWIFT action must be taken to clear up a mountain of festering rubbish in Dudley, laden with children's toys, tyres and furniture, a frustrated councillor has said.

Up to 3,000 tonnes of junk has been dumped on the Rowan Oak Waste site in Shaw Road and despite intervention from the Environment Agency, which saw the operator's permit being revoked in March, the site is yet to be cleared.

The rubbish heap is just a few miles away from the former RDF site, off Moor Street in Brierley Hill, where a towering pile of household rubbish has blighted the landscape for years.

The site was finally cleared earlier this month - at a cost of £2million to the landowner - but it took too long to resolve the situation, according to Councillor Shaukat Ali.

The St Thomas's councillor said: "People are really worried, we don't want to be in the same situation as Brierley Hill, where it took several years to clear after a very long and lengthy campaign by the local community.

"It is important for me to see that the Environment Agency and Dudley Council have learned lessons from Brierley Hill, we need to get it cleared as soon as possible."

Cllr Ali has requested a meeting with council and agency officials so he can keep tabs on the situation and Dudley North MP Ian Austin is also applying the pressure as he believes the rubbish has already been there "too long".

Mr Austin said he had repeatedly pressed the Environment Agency and Dudley Council to get the site cleared and is now taking his campaign to Andrea Leadsom, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, asking her to take action against the site’s operator and impose penalties if they fail to clear the rubbish.

He said: “As soon as local residents got in touch with me I got straight on to the Environment Agency and Dudley Council, but months later it’s still there.

“That’s why I’m now questioning the Government and calling for penalties to be imposed on the owners of the site so we can get the rubbish removed as soon as possible. We need to see some action."

Councillor Hilary Bills, cabinet member for environmental services, said enforcement responsibility lies with the Environment Agency, and added: "We are in regular contact with them to resolve the issue."

Jonathan Hall, the agency's regulated industry programme manager, said: “Our aim was to get the operator back into compliance and within their permit conditions as soon as possible.

"As soon as we knew this was not going to be successful we took enforcement action against the company."

Mr Hall said an investigation, looking into the illegal depositing of waste and its source, was still ongoing but said: "We are seeking to secure safe and legal removal of the waste still left at the site.”