Families in Sheerness are being threatened with £100 fines for leaving litter outside their homes.

Swale council is getting tough in its bid to clean up Marine Town and issued warning notices to properties in Invicta Road and Unity Street.

The move comes after the council wrote to nearly 130 homes in February reminding residents to dispose of their waste properly.

Before that, 500 homes were given leaflets reminding them when and where to put out their rubbish.

Cllr Alan Horton, cabinet member for safer families and communities, said: “Putting waste out at the wrong time blocks the pavement, attracts pests and makes the area look and feel neglected.

“The vast majority of people are doing it right and we’ve worked hard to remind residents what they need to do.

“These notices are the final warning. The next step is a £100 fine. I hope that shows people we’re serious.”

But his words were greeted with scorn by one resident.

The 67-year-old grandmother who did not want to be named said: “Swale council is all talk and no action.

“It just keeps making promises. It makes me so angry. The state of these roads is diabolical.

"Even now there is a TV, laptop, pram, fridge and a mattress dumped near my home.”

Window cleaners Alan Crinean, 49, and Mick Smith, 52, regularly have to pick their way through the rubbish.

Mick said: “It’s disgusting. I’ve lived on Sheppey all my life and it’s getting worse.”

Cllr Horton added: “One of the problems is that you can’t take anything to the tip anymore.

"They won’t accept mattresses or paint. Where are you supposed to go?”

Almost three-quarters of Swale’s worst waste hot-spots are in Marine Town.

The situation is so bad the council has been forced to employ a contractor to regularly clean alleys of fly-tipping.

It is believed to be the only borough in Britain to do this. Fixed penalty fines for fly-tipping now stand at £400.

Three families have so far been sent warning letters about the £100 fine.