Mounds of rubbish have finally been cleared by a council after numerous complaints.

Residents visiting the bottle banks at Morrisons supermarket on Coldharbour Road, Northfleet, last week were greeted with rubbish overflowing from the bins.

However, after the complaints, Gravesham council sent out a waste management team to clear up the mess.

Shopper Catherine Blackwell visited the supermarket to get rid of some of her old bottles and said she was surprised at the amount of garbage.

The 61-year-old Sole Street resident said: “I happened to be passing Morrisons and thought I’d get rid of our bottles there. I hadn’t been there for a long time and was shocked at how disgusting it looked. It was an eyesore and a environmental hazard. There were two other cars already parked, so I stopped on the little slip road that leads to the recycling area, there were no empty parking spaces and I didn’t want to drive any nearer in case I drove over broken glass.”

While waiting to recycle her rubbish, Mrs Blackwell watched two other residents trying to work their way through the waste. She added: “One man was just carefully treading his way back to his car, over broken glass and boxes and bags of empty bottles on the ground, from the narrow passage in between the overflowing bottle banks. When he had gone, a second man was able to walk through the passage to get rid of his bottles and I had to wait until he had gone before I could access the bottle banks. They were so full that you could only rest bottles carefully on the top of what was already in there.”

The council has said that it was going to increase the collection times and CCTV is being installed the catch anyone dumping rubbish illegally.

Gravesham council leader Cllr David Turner said: “We are aware of the fly tipping and the over spilling problems that there have been at the recycling site at Morrisons, and council staff visit there at least four times per week to clear the rubbish and fly tipping. The problem arises of course because of the thoughtless behaviour of some individuals.”