Ref.10595ANXIOUS mum-of-four Michelle Watkins fears for her children's safety in her garden, which has been used as a dumping ground for lethal blades.

The problems began two months ago when Mrs Watkins found a four-inch kitchen knife in her back garden, where her four children aged ten, eight, three and a 22-month-old baby, play.

In recent weeks Mrs Watkins, 33, says the problem has escalated and she has discovered an assortment of sharp metal objects in the grass, including a collection of rotary saw blades.

She also found a plastic 'Stretch Arms Strong' doll bleeding a sticky gel on to the grass from a wound created by a steel blade embedded in its neck.

Mrs Watkins, of Hungerford Road, Calne, suspects youths from the new housing development at Stokes Croft, at the rear of her garden, of hurling the dangerous rubbish into her garden.

She says they have turned her family's dream house into a nightmare, and she now refuses to let her children play outside until she or her husband have first inspected the grass.

The problem has become so bad the family is considering moving away.

Mrs Watkins husband, Darren, 31, the deputy manager of Sainsburys, said: "It's not just kids on their summer holidays, because they have only been off for a couple of weeks and this has been going on for months."

Mrs Watkins said: "Part of the reason we moved here was because the garden was so nice, but what's happening has made us feel like moving.

"If it was crisp packets and broken glass, that's just rubbish, but a knife is not acceptable.

"They must be finding it and chucking it over our fence because there's too much for it to be just opportunist."

The family said they have had problems with youngsters ever since people moved into the new houses at Stokes Croft in February.

At one point Mrs Watkins regularly found children sitting on her garden fence. She said she was concerned about the safety of the children and was worried her fence might collapse.

She said some of the children tried to get into her garden to play with her children's toys.

Mrs Watkins said she repeatedly asked the youngsters to get off the fence, and six-weeks ago put black, sticky anti-burglar paint on the top of her side of it as a deterrent.

But Mrs Watkins said it has not stopped the dangerous rubbish appearing in her garden.

The family said they have no idea why they have become a target, but Mrs Watkins fears it could be youngsters disgruntled about the paint or not being allowed to play in her garden.

Mr Watkins said: "We were finding bits and pieces regularly for months, but we thought it was just rubbish so we chucked it away. But the last few months we have kept it because the whole thing has started to get nasty.

"We were so shocked when we found the knife, we thought we have got to do something.

"Before that we could justify it as a bit of rubbish or just a one off.

"What's going on? Surely people must notice knives going missing.

"Our main concern is that one of the children might get hurt. It might stop and never happen again, but it might not."

The family moved into the house, which they liked because of its privacy and its garden, in 1999.

But Mrs Watkins said the situation changed when the housing development was completed.

She said that if the problem continues the family will have no choice but to raise the height of their 8ft fence.

She said the police have been informed and an officer assigned to deal with her complaints.