Rubbish dumped in and around the moat between Sheerness Docks and the sea wall has been branded a disgrace.

Steven Askew estimates that some of the items have been sitting there for up to 20 years.

The 51-year-old said: “The rubbish just builds up and no one ever clears it up.

“They talk about award-winning beaches on Sheerness but you only have to go a bit further and it offsets the awards.

“The people who are dumping the rubbish have no sense of where they are.

“They go up on the grass to have a mobile barbecue or something and just leave it.”

Mr Askew, of Invicta Road, said a rusted trolley has been in the moat for the past 10 years while a motorbike has been there for the past 20 years.

He is also worried about the effects the waste is having on birds.

He said: “The wildlife is in competition with the litter. There are ducks swimming around and they have nowhere to go.”

A Swale Council spokesman said the authority does not own the moat area around Bridge Road, Sheerness, and it is not contracted to clean it regularly.

Although it has often been assumed the council is the owner, the spokesman said the ownership of the land is a “grey area” as it is not known who is responsible for it.

The council has cleared the water before with the assistance of day-release inmates from the Sheppey prison cluster.

There are plans for another clean-up in mid-September with the help of prisoners.

However, they will only be able to collect what they can reach using hooks.

He added: “If people did not drop litter and instead disposed of it properly in the many litter bins that there are along the promenade then we would not face the issue of trying to clean it all from the water.

“We believe in a cleaner and greener Swale, and those people who drop their litter ruin the landscape for everyone else.”