Rubbish was left spewing into a river after “idiotic” vandals lobbed six bins into the water.

A team from the council’s waste contractor was forced to spend several hours clearing the waste and retrieving the bins from the River Stour in Canterbury.

The incident on Friday night near the city’s Sainsbury’s has prompted fury among council chiefs.

Canterbury City Council cabinet member for council services Cllr Charlotte Cornell (Lab) branded the culprits “thoughtless idiots”.

She said: “To say I am livid is an absolute understatement.

“To put it simply, the people who decided doing this with public bins was a good idea are thoughtless idiots, who care little for their community.

“Quite often vandalism is described as mindless when the very opposite is the case.

“These people would have had to have gone out of their way to deliberately lift heavy bins that were packed full of litter into the river not once but six times. Normal people take care of their rubbish in the right way.

“People will say these bins should be bolted down – they shouldn’t have to be.”

A team from the city council’s contractor Canenco attended the river on Monday to start the clean-up.

Cllr Mel Dawkins (Lab), the council’s cabinet member for environment and climate change, is also furious as the stretch of river is home to a variety of wildlife and was recently cleared by volunteers.

She said: “To see pictures of bins in the river is utterly galling especially when you consider the harm that could come to the precious creatures that live there. These people simply do not care.

“Weeks after the Great Stour Riverfest event, it is even more infuriating when you realise that these actions have undone hours and hours of hard and backbreaking work to clear the river in recent weeks.

“We really value their efforts. The vandals simply do not.”

One of the workers, Phil King even had to retrieve a fish from the rubbish before placing it back in the river.

But while the incident is not understood to have caused any long-term harm to the river's ecology, it has prompted anger among residents too.

River warden Sian Pettman is grateful for the work of the contractors in clearing the waste. She said: “A huge thanks to Canenco – especially Chris Murphy, Sarah Burns and Phil King – for removing the bins from the river that some stupid idiots threw in on Friday night.

“Once full of river water, the bins are extremely heavy and cumbersome to remove.

“There were no less than six bins in the river in the Sainsbury’s area, with rubbish spewing out of them.

“One little fish was retrieved from the rubbish and placed back in the river.”

Meanwhile, a fly-tipper who dumped waste in a country lane near the city has been ordered to pay more than £800 in fines and court costs.

Madalina Petre, of Rutland Close, Canterbury, failed to attend Margate Magistrates’ Court on October 31 for the hearing and was fined in her absence.

The court was told that the fly-tipping incident occurred in Bekesbourne Lane on or around October 19 last year.

Environmental crime officers from Canterbury City Council began investigating and evidence was found linking the rubbish to Petre.

However, despite efforts by officers, she ignored all requests to assist with inquiries.

Petre was fined £440, with a surcharge of £176 and the costs of the council’s prosecution of £200 – a total of £816.

Cabinet member for enforcement, Cllr Connie Nolan (Lab), said: “Ms Petre had a brazen disregard for the local environment when dumping this rubbish out in the countryside and then showed no interest in engaging with our investigating officers. Burying your head in the sand and hoping it goes away is just not the way to handle matters.”