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A major Kent road littered with rubbish, rusting road signs and bottles of urine has been branded a “public health risk”.
The A2070 in Ashford connects the M20 with Sevington and Kingsnorth, and is close to Ashford International Truckstop.
Charles Murray-Roscoe, who has lived on the nearby Park Farm estate for 15 years, fears the area is now so “unhygienic” there could be an outbreak of disease.
“It's the A2070 and the entry and the exit roads coming off the Orbital Park where I see the worst of it,” the 72-year-old said.
“There are dead animals decaying, urine bottles sitting in trees, and traffic cones. It’s disgraceful.
“I think healthwise it's in the air, and there is the possibility of disease because of the unhygienic state of the roads close to where we live.
“We're living amongst it. It's only a matter of 100 yards or less from my house, and closer to others. It’s a major public health issue.”
A KentOnline reporter drove along the A2070 - including the Bad Munstereifel Road section close to Orbital Park - to witness the problem first-hand.
She saw bottles filled with yellow liquid discarded on the verges and in trees, as well as rubbish dumped at various points along the side of the carriageway.
Several abandoned road signs were also seen - many rusting away - along with traffic cones.
Mr Murray-Roscoe - who works in sports equipment sales - added: “The road itself is not being monitored by anybody apart from myself and a few local people here, but people locally are fed up with the filth.
“Why should we have to live amongst it?
“We pay our community charge and I expect my street to be cleaned, as well as the main road.
“I don't expect to have this filth verging on my doorstep.
“I go to Switzerland, Holland, Germany and Belgium and I just cannot believe how beautifully clean they are and how seriously the authorities in those countries take roadside hygiene.
“The impact this must have on tourists who are visiting our country, seeing this absolute filth on our roads. It's embarrassing.”
The Ashford resident says rubbish from the busy route blows onto his estate, where he “has not seen a road sweeper in years”.
While he litter-picks on more minor streets, Mr Murray-Roscoe feels it is too dangerous to go out onto the A2070, which is 70mph in some places.
He says the problems have exacerbated since the construction of the Sevington Inland Border Facility and Ashford International Truckstop, which is visited by 2,000 lorries a day.
“That's a vast amount of heavy traffic,” he explained.
“It is not being monitored or cleaned, and it's in an absolutely filthy, unhygienic state.
“Lorries are parking up and they fling their urine bottles, their tins, their food and their packaging from McDonald's - which is just down the road - out onto the verges.
“It's not being collected or picked up or litter-picked.”
While he says the A2070 is the worst-affected, Mr Murray-Roscoe says it is an issue impacting the whole town.
“It's all the entry and exit roads in and around Ashford coming off the motorway,” he said.
National Highways is responsible for the maintenance of the A2070.
A spokesperson said: “Littering is a social problem, and we are working hard to tackle it on our roads.
“We comply with our duties under the Environmental Protection Act, and our people are litter-picking almost every day.
“To keep them safe, we have to close motorways and A-road lanes, delaying drivers and costing millions of pounds.
“But if people don’t drop litter in the first place, it wouldn’t need to be picked up – so we urge road users to take their litter home.”
