LAY-BYS used by Monmouthshire Council highways teams for storing materials are attracting fly-tipping, a councillor has claimed.

Black bags, rubble, building materials and other waste are being dumped at rural pull-ins, while the council also regularly leaves tarmac, soil and other materials at roadside areas, which it says are depots rather than lay-bys.

Mitchel Troy and Trellech councillor Jayne McKenna said she feared the council was encouraging fly tipping by using the lay-bys and also questioned the safety of large lorries loading and unloading along fast roads.

The Conservative member said lay-bys between the A40 services and Dingestow on the old Monmouth-Raglan road and Greenlane, Trellech, are “regularly used for fly-tipping”, when she highlighted the issue at the council’s March meeting.

She asked: “Why is this being exacerbated by the council dumping tarmac, soil and other materials? This is not only unsightly but unsafe. The lay-by near Skew Bridge is on a 60mph road with little space for lorries and workers to unload materials.”

Cllr Catrin Maby (Drybridge, Monmouth), the Labour cabinet member for highways, thanked Cllr McKenna for “highlighting an issue that needs to be addressed”, but said the areas weren’t lay-bys.

She said: “Initially I was looking at this thinking ‘how is this fly-tipping happening?’ I wasn’t aware Monmouthshire County Council have a large number of road side depots, that’s what they are historically, they are old roadside depots and not in fact lay-bys.”

The council’s material wasn’t dumped but stored, she said, and used for operational purposes with the locations registered with Natural Resources Wales for storage or transfer.

Cllr Maby added that the highway team was “slowly reducing reliance” on the sites and said the council would look into preventing fly-tipping and making the purpose of the depots clear.

She also said she would consider the safety point raised.

Cllr McKenna suggested signs could be used to highlight their purpose.