A WASTE disposal firm was so disgusted by fly-tippers who dumped piles of rubbish in a community woodland that it offered to remove it free of charge.

The detritus, including builders’ waste and an old sofa, was left in Hreod Burna Urban Forest over the past week and the volunteers who are trying to restore and improve the land faced a struggle to clear it.

But after Gary Robinsons from Grab and Go in Haydon Wick read the front page story in Tuesday’s Swindon Advertiser he got in contact with the Hreod Burna Urban Forest Group secretary Josie Lewis and offered his expertise.

“It is lovely,” said a delighted Josie today.

“We would have had to clear it up ourselves by taking wheelbarrows out to the road. It would have been a lot of hard work for us.

“It just shows the kindness of people who don’t want to see this kind of thing happening.”

Mr Robinson said he decided to get in touch after reading about the three loads of waste that had been dumped on the site.

“It is absolutely disgraceful,” he said.

“We’ve got a waste disposal business and I thought I could get it cleared for them.”

“People put their effort into keeping a place clean and someone goes and does that. It’s just not fair. It is happening when people can really just go to the tip.”

He said back in the 1960s and '70s fly-tipping was more common.

“But they didn’t have the recycling facilities you have now. It just annoys me that people still do that," he said.

“They have actually put it into a trailer or a van and stuck it in there when they could have driven a bit further and taken it to the tip.”

The woodland was saved from development four years ago following stiff local resistance from residents and councillors to a plan for 250 homes on former allotments. Since then it has become popular with dog walkers and other other locals.

But in recent months it has suffered several incidents of vandalism, including damage to a bridge that had only recently been built by volunteers.

Now the group is considering installing CCTV in a bid to prevent further incidents and Josie is determined to track down the flytippers.

In amongst the dumped waste was a plate from a taxi and signs belonging to a lettings agency.