People living in a village near Melksham collected 200kg of rubbish from a layby after growing tired of waiting for action to be taken by the council.

Residents of Littlemarsh in Semington cleared up piles of junk and rubbish from the layby on the former A350, which was closed off after the Semington bypass was opened.

Part of the haul included part of a car including the numberplate, 200 beer and wine bottle, five empty coin boxes from BT payphones and 150 litres of waste oil found in containers thrown into a hedgerow. Some of the oil had leaked into the soil.

Roy McDine, 57, who has lived in the street since 1988, said he and fellow residents felt they needed to take action after writing to West Wiltshire District Council and police last September, but hearing nothing back from them.

Mr McDine joined by his wife Sue, 55, took matters into his own hands and rallied neighbours, who were more than willing to bring tools and vehicles along to help the clean-up effort on March 7.

He said: “It was fun, it was very satisfying and we are just trying to do our bit. We don’t want the council to do everything. We would be happy to take responsibility of a waste bin if one was put in place.”

Talking about he discovery of waste oil, Mr McDine said at least one of the containers had split and leaked pil into the soil, posing a hazard to the environment. A household recycling centre, where the oil could be disposed of safely, is located just three miles away in Bowerhill.

Mr McDine added: “There are only 17 houses up our lane and there were around 22 people helping so it was more than one person from some of the households that came to join in.

“We had people from 11 to 82 years of age there and it was very much a community effort. People that weren’t picking up litter brought coffee and cakes down.”

All the items the residents retrieved were either burned on private land, if they were unrecyclable, or taken away to be recycled.

Local farmer Pete Bond had cut back the brambles and hedgerow beforehand to allow the litter pick to take place.

A spokesman for West Wiltshire District Council said they had no record of any letter from Mr McDine, however their street scene department would be happy to speak to anyone about the problem on 01225 776655.

He said: “We will do whatever we are able to to help alleviate the problem.”