A litter-picking volunteer was turned away from the tip after being told he could only dispose of his own rubbish.

The dad-of-three Colin Shadbolt, 51, was turned away from the Faversham dump in Salters Lane after spending several hours collecting bags of litter from beside the road.

The litter-picker was told: “You can’t take rubbish to the rubbish tip” by the tip workers.

He said: “Over the past two weeks I have been walking up Salters Lane and picking up the litter along that way as I go.

“It is all rubbish which has been there for years and will be there for years to come as nobody does anything about it.

“I went to the tip on Tuesday with a couple of bags of rubbish and they said I could not bring that in there, it goes against their rules. When I was at the tip, there were a few people standing about and they were flabbergasted, too."

After writing to the Kent County Council about his nightmare experience, they confirmed that his volunteering was indeed for nothing as the tip workers were right and he needed to be a licensed waste collector.

Mr Shadbolt has spent hours picking up after others in some of our fly-tipped roads over the past few months but he may now think again before he reaches for the litter-picker.

He said: “I was shocked. The council should be encouraging people to bring litter in and making it easy for them to make the place look nicer. There was a lot of excitement about the Clean for the Queen campaign, but it seems that the council only care for one week of the year.”

KCC spokesman Thom Morris confirmed the Faversham Household Waste Recycling Centre in Salters Lane is for the use of members of the public to dispose of items “which originate from their own property” and would encourage litter-pickers to contact their district council in advance to arrange a collection.

He said: “Litter waste has no specific origin and by default could be hazardous. Therefore, we have been working with district and borough councils across the county to try and make it easier and clearer to arrange disposal of waste from litter picks.

“This ensures members of the public are not further exposed to handling potentially hazardous waste. While we applaud the initiative, litter being picked up is not from a personal property and therefore you would need to be a registered waste carrier and this waste would need to be disposed of at a transfer station.

“Litter is a high priority in Kent, but we need to follow processes to ensure that waste is disposed of in the most appropriate way.”