RESIDENTS blighted by fly-tipping in their street have reached the end of their tether.

Roger Gray, 53, is among a number of people to contact the Adver fed-up with finding sofas, black bags, mattresses and even buggies left outside their homes.

They now want to appeal directly to those who are thoughtlessly abandoning their rubbish to stop.

“Why should my mother have to pay to have someone else's rubbish moved, just because her land was the easiest place to dump it?” said Roger, whose elderly, disabled mother lives in York Road.

“Many years ago my parents moved here, which at the time was a very nice area of the town.

“For a variety of reasons the area, in my opinion, has deteriorated and the situation has been made much worse by anti-social behaviour - notably graffiti and dumping of rubbish.

“In the latest episode an unwanted sofa and chair has been left on my mother’s land at the rear of the property outside her garage door – it’s shocking.”

Andover Street and Marlborough Street have also recently seen a bout of items being dumped there. The most recent on Sunday night along a public walkway.

“It is a very common problem in the area with things being dumped and left there on a weekly basis,” said one resident.

“Two weeks ago there was a large wooden table, speaker system, black bags and a wheeled shopping bag which didn't move for two weeks. As soon as it’s removed more stuff is dumped.

“I reported it to the council and was told it would be moved within ten to 14 working days however, when I returned from work the next day it had been cleared, this was very quick compared to previous times.”

Swindon Borough Council is urging residents who employ people to take waste away to check they have a valid waste carrier's licence.

They said: "If the waste is then fly-tipped instead, the person who employed them can also be prosecuted. Relying on a verbal reassurance that a licence exists isn’t enough – ask to see the paperwork, and if in doubt don’t use them.

“If fly-tipping is reported to us we will visit the site, and if the waste is on public land we will remove it.

"We’ll also investigate to see if there is evidence as to who has dumped it. If there is, we will prosecute and a number of people have appeared in court in the past few months, with some of these cases reported in the Advertiser.

“If waste is dumped on privately-owned land, which can include alleyways at the backs of houses and car parking areas in housing developments such as flats, the council can’t remove it as it is the responsibility of the landowner to do it.”