INVESTIGATORS are on the case of fly-tippers who dumped rubbish within days of volunteers clearing a site.

Dozens of Royal Wootton Bassett residents and local councillors took part in the nationwide Big Spring Clean earlier this month, spending hours collecting sack-loads of food cartons, bottles and other accumulated waste all over the town.

But within days more garbage had been dumped on the Row de Dow footpath.

“It is so disappointing,” said mayor Mary Champion. “And it’s so silly because there are plenty of tips that people can go to.”

An address was found in the rubbish and its has been passed on to Wiltshire Council to investigate.

Mrs Champion paid tribute to the efforts of the townspeople of all ages who had got together to tackle the litter.

“I just think that our volunteers are amazing,” she said.

Last weekend more litter pickers from the town’s Methodist Church were in action around the Row de Dow where it runs through Royal Wootton Bassett Academy’s playing fields.

Deputy mayor Steve Bucknell and his wife Allison, a Wiltshire councillor, donned their wellies and gloves to join in the effort and were horrified by what they found.

“It was a disgusting mess with dozens of cans and bottles, sweet wrappers and crisp packets and lots of other litter,” said Steve.

He and his wife collected four full bin bags within an hour.

“It’s obvious that kids sit on the wall and just chuck things away without a thought but there were plenty of alcohol cans as well, so it’s not just the school kids,” he said.

He added that he was so fed up of waiting for the mess to be cleared up he had decided to do it himself.

At a recent town council meeting a resident had also raised the issue of litter in the area, especially on land belonging to Oxford University behind Boroughfields.

He had offered to arrange volunteers and take his land rover and trailer into the area to clear it properly.

Steve said: “The town clerk has written to Oxford University asking for their permission to go into the land and clean it up, so let’s hope they agree.”

Alison said there was a popular view that clearing litter was the responsibility of the unitary authority.

“My view is that we shouldn’t have to litter pick because it is an avoidable cost,” she said.

“We spend £2.5m per year clearing up litter. That £2.5m could do so much more.

“It could be spent on things like social care or fixing potholes.

“Most fly-tipped rubbish was not domestic waste. It was the kind of rubbish rogue traders with vans offered to take away for a tenner.

“It is the responsibility of the person disposing of the rubbish to check that the person taking it away has a licence to do it.”

But because the Row de Dow was a footpath she was convinced the fly-tipper had walked there, so may well be local.