SHOPPERS in the town centre have criticised Swindon Council for a lack of foresight after a grass mower shredded litter across the length of a canal embankment.

On Tuesday passers-by watched on as a council grass-cutter ploughed through piles of litter on the embankment by the Old Canal between Cambria Bridge and House of Fraser, in the Brunel Centre.

The rubbish was scattered into thousands of tiny pieces, making it impossible to gather them all up.

The council said it will seek to clear litter before grass is cut in future.

Paul Crovella, 44, said: “I was walking back from town along the Old Canal and could see the mower going along. I could see he was heading for a patch of bags of crisps and cartons of drinks. I thought to myself he’s not going to mow through that, he will stop and pick it up.

“But he sent it spraying all across the path. I carried on walking to Cambria Bridge where he had started, and he had mowed through every piece of litter along the embankment. That would have been fine if he had a collection box on his mower, because the suction would have picked it all up. But he didn’t.

“The grass cuttings scattered across the path along with all the litter. The area never looks nice, but this has compounded the problem. It just made a mess into an even worse mess.

“Swindon has got a lousy reputation as being a bit of a dump, and this is just making matters worse. There was a lot of rubbish, at least two bin bags full. The fact the litter is dropped is a different issue. But when it is already there the council should be able to deal with it.

“They should have a project manager to look at these areas and decide we need a litter picker to go through first. It is a main thoroughfare, and I would not want to be the guy who has to go and pick up the litter now. It is going to take forever.”

Two passing teenagers also saw the scattered litter. They feel the area is being made worse by council efforts.

Alessandro Pasqualitto, 17, said: “The council should put some bins in there so people can get rid of their litter properly. Either that or get someone to pick up the litter rather than shredding it with their lazy mowing.”

Jack Hitchcock, 17, said: “I am shocked with the council’s effort in this area. They could be doing a lot better to make it a nice place to live.”

A Swindon Borough Council spokesman said: “We always endeavour to link up our litter picking and grass cutting and clearly it would have been better if the litter in this area had been cleared away before the grass was cut. We will be speaking with our grass cutting team about this.

“We will clear away the litter and look into whether we have the resources to put in extra bins along this particular stretch of path.

“However, we would ask people not to drop their litter anyway and if there is not a bin nearby, that they dispose of it responsibly.”