A bitter dispute over litter on the Thanet Way between a campaigner and the city council has cost the taxpayer £4,000.

The row - branded “a colossal waste of time and money” by the local authority - was criticised by a magistrate at a hearing last Wednesday who said the situation had gone too far.

In April, Michael Wheeler, of Forge Close in Faversham, used public powers under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to demand a litter abatement order be served against Canterbury City Council.

It related to rubbish on the verges and lay-bys on the A2 and A299 between Herne Bay and Dargate, and a footway between Wraik Hill and Pilgrims Lane on the edge of the highway by Whitstable.

By June the lay-bys and verges were cleared, with more than 1,200 bags of rubbish collected, but the footpath remained untouched so the matter continued on to court for a magistrate to consider whether to serve an abatement order.

At the hearing, however, it emerged the footway is not the responsibility of the city council but Kent County Council meaning no action would be taken against Canterbury.

Mr Wheeler, 70, says a simple phone call to him by the city council in June referring him to KCC would have halted the court action, but instead it was left to run on into October.

“The point that annoyed the magistrate was that once the city council had cleared the waste from the verges, they hadn't contacted me to say the footpath wasn't their responsibility,” Mr Wheeler said.

"From June until now the situation has been allowed to persist and the city council to incur internal costs when it should have been stopped.

"It took a whole day in court to get to the point that the magistrate couldn't issue a litter abatement order because Canterbury council is not responsible for that area."

Mr Wheeler says the footpath between Wraik Hill and Pilgrims Lane remains a mess and he will continue with his campaign.

Rob Davies, spokesman for the city council, claims the campaigner had every opportunity to stop the case.

Mr Davies says it was clear from the start that Mr Wheeler was “only ever interested in having his day in court”.

“We wrote to him in the same month informing him in detail of the measures we were taking for cleaning litter and we both offered to update him and invited him to contact us,” Mr Davies said.

“He did not accept this.

"Many weeks in advance of the trial we served on him detailed evidence which plainly explained our responsibility for collecting rubbish from verges and land immediately adjoining highways. Yet he persisted with the case.

“He could have ended it at any time, but chose not to. His aim all along was to get us in court and attempt to shame us.

“It has been a colossal waste of time and taxpayers' money and we are extremely disappointed that the court, despite finding totally in our favour by not making a litter abatement order against us, did not allow us to claim costs from Mr Wheeler, who lives in Faversham.

“We would have pursued every single penny of the £4,000 we've spent on this, on behalf of our residents.”

Mr Davies says cleans of the A2 and A299 have been carried out twice since May.