A toaster, bottles of urine and road signs among the rubbish cleared from rural lay-bys

A toaster, bottles of urine and road signs are the among the rubbish cleared from lay-bys in Bishopsbourne over the weekend.

Former city councillor Mike Sole and parish councillor Laura Spencer spent Sunday morning clearing the lay-bys in Bonny Bush Hill.

Mr Sole says he is in no doubt that lorry drivers using the lay-bys to park their vehicles are responsible.

• Air quality activists kickstart “every breath we take” campaign
• Is Canterbury City Council the right name for our local authority?

“The situation is getting worse down there, much worse,” Mr Sole said.

“We have four or five lorries parked there a night and some of the stuff you find like bottles of urine are absolutely disgusting.

“We’re pretty sure much of it comes from the lorry drivers – especially as we found tyres from a lorry.

“But we also found things like road signs and traffic cones and even a toaster.”

Mr Sole, who lives in Kingston and represented the Lib Dems on the council, says the authority’s cleaning contractor Serco had only visited the site four days before he helped clear it.

“That means that either they didn’t do a very good job or a lot of that rubbish turned up in the days between. It’s clear to me that a lot of it had been there a long time as it was covered by undergrowth.

“The truth is that what we really want is for these lay-bys closed, the concrete ripped up and the area restored to nature with some shrubs.

“If not, then they need to be properly maintained and have bins put in for rubbish.”

Sunday’s litter pick at Bishopsbourne saw a total of 10 bags of rubbish cleared.

Community litter picks are becoming increasingly popular in the Canterbury district as people fed up with mess take direct action.