Residents have called on developers and builders to take responsibility for rubbish blown into countryside in Rainham.

Polystyrene and plastic blew from a site off Lower Rainham Road during Storm Eunice last Friday, February18, prompting outrage among residents.

That outrage grew through the course of the week as the rubbish has spread further into verges, fields and orchards - leading to calls for builders McCulloch Homes and developer Peel L&P, to take action.

Amy Stapleton, 31, who lives off Otterham Quay Lane and walks regularly in the area, said the developers needed to own up to the mess and act.

"It's really apparent that it's coming from that site," she said. "On the day after the storm we drove back from a weekend away and it was all along the road. It was as if it had snowed.

"Where the cars are chopping it up, now it's blowing everywhere.

"It makes me furious. I use those orchard every day to walk my dog, and you can see it all in the apple trees and the verges - you can see bits of plastic.

"The orchards lead on to the river where there's lots of wildlife and it's going to damage that environment."

She subsequently contacted Peel L&P and McCullochs to demand action, and asked Medway Council to see if they can enforce a penalty.

"I think the more people address it and embarrass them, then maybe they will clear it up," she said. "They couldn't help that a storm was happened but you would think they would have tethered those materials down. Everyone saw the storm over the weekend and they should have been out there clearing it up."

Others commenting on Facebook echoed her thoughts, labelling the rubbish as both an eyesore and a danger.

McCulloch Homes' operations and legal manager Crystal McCulloch said the company had been informed of rubbish blowing from a construction site on Monday, February 21.

She added: "On our return to site on Monday we made a strong effort in clearing up any of the debris that may have been blown around and we cleared more on Tuesday. However, the ongoing weather has been against us and we have been battling with winds of over 25mph meaning we have been chasing the debris all over the road, which put our employees and subcontractors at risk of being hit by cars."

She noted nearby roadworks meant traffic was being diverted parallel to the site resulting in an increase in traffic.

And she added: "We are clearing up the debris, however there are multiple construction sites either side of our development and ours is the smallest development with currently 18 homes under construction. One development to our left is building over 70 homes and another to our right is building over 200. It is nearly impossible to distinguish who owns what debris, but working it out percentage wise our site is less than 10% the size of the other two developments. Therefore, other developers also need to take responsibility for clean-up, just as we have made continued efforts all week.

"Additionally, some of the debris is from local residential bins that have obviously been blown over during the high winds."

She said a road sweeper was on-site on Friday, February 25, sweeping both sides of Lower Rainham Road between the Angel Pub roundabout and the Three Sisters Pub roundabout, and that McCulloch's groundworkers were due to follow behind to clear the larger debris from the hedgerow and trees.

They were also due to enter the orchard, to remove larger pieces of rubbish caught in a fence.

Peel L&P have investigated the situation and believe rubbish had blown from McCulloch Homes' site.

Residents reported that rubbish had been cleared from Lower Rainham Road since the clean-up efforts.