NEARLY 20 black bags of rubbish were collected as Wingfield Parish Council took advantage of Trowbridge Road being closed while a footpath was being installed.

The group of 10, who were involved in the clear-up, were known as the Wingfield Wombles and spent all of last Wednesday collecting the rubbish.

A 130m stretch of road from Loves Lane to Trowle Farm was closed last week to allow for a footpath to be installed and within the rubbish, more than 30 empty wine bottles were found on the side of the road.

Tony Bennion, parish councillor for environmental issues, led the tidy up. He said: “We decided to take advantage of the A366 being closed and we eventually picked up 19 bags of rubbish in the distance.

“It was mainly wine bottles and it was quite frightening of how many we picked up.

"It has not been done for a long time and you just don’t know why people throw bottles to the side. It was just masses of bottles of wine after another.”

The parish council decided to carry out the work after their previous efforts of getting Wiltshire Council contractors Balfour Beatty were unsuccessful, leaving many residents annoyed at the mess.

Mr Bennion added: “Most people have got angry about the rubbish and we have tried to sort it out now.”

They now hope to get more people involved for their annual village clean-up on April 11.

Mr Bennion said: “We will be encouraging residents to join in and get involved and we want both the young and old to help but we are aware of how dangerous the road is.”

For more information about the forthcoming tidy up, visit www.wingfieldparish.info