WORK was getting underway today (Monday January 11) to clear the remains of a Brierley Hill waste mound has blighted the lives and homes of people nearby for the last few years.

The site, previously occupied by Refuse Derived Fuel, put Brierley Hill on the international map for all the wrong reasons back in 2012 when a pile of household rubbish awaiting landfill crept up to a 40-foot mountain.

After a series of court hearings, the giant waste pile gradually started to come down but not quickly enough to prevent RDF director Robert McNaughton being sentenced to six months in prison in December 2013 for failing to clear the rubbish within agreed timescales.

Keen to say a final good riddance to the blot on the landscape, Dudley Council planners last year approved outline plans for 94 new apartments to be built on the site, off Moor Street, but the issue of clearing the remaining rubbish from the site rumbled on.

However - Environment Agency bosses have confirmed that preliminary work to clear the eyesore site was due to get underway today (Monday).

Marc Lidderth, environment manager at the Environment Agency, said: “We’ve been working closely with the landowners of the former RDF Ltd site to make sure the remaining waste is cleared, but not at the expense of the tax payer.

"The landowners have agreed to fund the clearance of the site and it is expected it will take approximately eight months to clear.

“We’re informing local residents of these latest developments and would like to thank them for their support and patience.

"We are committed to ensuring that any impact of these works on the community is kept to a minimum and will liaise with the landowners throughout their work clearing the site."

Residents with any environmental concerns during the clearance phase should call the Environment Agency’s 24-hour incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60.