A farmer has been unable to use hay mown from a riverside field after finding discarded litter and human excrement among the cuttings.

The disturbing discovery was made when James Holdstock tended to the land, which is bisected by a public footpath, off King Street in Fordwich, Canterbury.

Due to the levels of detritus found, the farmer was unable to use a number of the bales.

Mr Holdstock told the KentOnline: “There was litter in it – it is quite a risk. We’ve never had it as bad as this.

"We found some excrement with some tissue paper near it. Dog faeces does carry a nasty disease that uses cows as a vector; human poo probably isn’t as dangerous, but it’s not exactly nice.

“If any metal goes through a hay bale and cattle ingests it, it produces quite a nasty death for livestock. We have lost cows from ingesting litter.”

The hay along the beauty spot was cut by Mr Holdstock last month - a task he carries out once a year.

"There was litter in it – it is quite a risk. We’ve never had it as bad as this..."

Fordwich Town Council has since pasted two signs to posts along the walk pleading with picnickers not to dump their rubbish in the water meadows next to the Great Stour.

Chairman Philip Lewis believes the build up of litter was created by the large numbers of visitors to the town during the heatwave after the relaxation of lockdown.

“Like every other beauty spot in the country, Fordwich got its fair share of visitors,” he added.

“In the 14 years I’ve been here, we haven’t had the weight of people making use of that area in the way they did after the release of lockdown.

“We live in a beautiful part of the country and to have people pollute it with human and dog excrement, cans and bottles is very, very sad.

“We’ve put the notices up to encourage the people to be a bit more considerate and in the last two or three weeks it’s been better again.”

Cllr Lewis also stresses the proliferation of visitors to Fordwich – the country’s smallest town – has resulted in parking problems, with residents regularly finding cars left on double-yellow lines.

In addition, the town council has placed notices in the area warning swimmers in the river of the “slightest chance” of contracting Weil’s disease - a bacterial infection most commonly contracted by humans via water contaminated with animal urine.

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