By JOEL SAWYER

ENVIRONMENTAL watchdogs in Warrington are backing a scheme to spend £30,000 to monitor flies in the town.

Members of the town's Agenda 21 waste group have agreed to support a "super fly" study which would aim to find the source of the large number of flies in the Sankey Bridges and Liverpool Road areas of the town.

An original report in 1998 found that there were flies both on Arpley landfill and in Sankey Bridges but it was inconclusive as to whether the two facts were linked.

Although complaints to the council have significantly reduced since then, environmental health officers at Tuesday night's Agenda 21 meeting outlined the relative strengths and weaknesses of a further study aimed at finding the source of the flies.

This would involve a "release/capture" programme over seven days in summer using a controlled number of flies marked with fluorescent dust, which would be monitored by strategically-placed sticky traps.

Some Agenda 21 members speculated over the need of the further report at Tuesday's meeting but Environmental Health officer Paul McHenry highlighted its true potential by suggesting it could provide strong evidence in a prosecution case.

Borough councillor Linda Dirir commented: "They can't argue over 50,000 seagulls, but they can with flies because they are a lot smaller. We should be pushing this because we need whatever proof we can."

But before any study can be put in motion, a backer needs to be found to provide 10 per cent of the overall £30,000 cost the rest of which can be funded through a landfill tax grant.

All eyes had turned to the landfill operator 3C Waste but it said it would prefer to continue to invest in direct control rather than fund further studies.