Housing estate left looking like disaster zone after families put out 11 tonnes of rubbish - two days early

Home owners in Exwick, Exeter saw huge piles of rubbish on their grass and it looked like a tornado had hit the street.

Old washing machines, cookers and fridges sat alongside other discarded furniture.

Piles of broken toys and heaps of builders' rubbish littered the area after the council's offer to collect bulky waste led to chaos.

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Old furniture, broken microwaves, washing machines, ironing boards, unwanted toys and more were littered on the street

Exeter City Council is reviewing its policy after it had to call in a fleet of bin lorries and a small army of binmen to clear up the mess in Foxtor Road.

The idea was to have quarterly collections of bulky rubbish, such as broken or unwanted freezers, in order to prevent fly-tipping.

Residents were supposed to take their goods out as the binmen and their dust cart was in the area, so that their rubbish could be loaded straight away.

But some people dumped their unwanted goods two days before the binmen were due to arrive, which led to the pile up in rubbish.

The council was also concerned that commercial builders were abusing the scheme and leaving their rubbish out, to avoid paying the fee at the local tip.

Pensioner Gerald Pollard, 86, of Foxtor Road, said: "It is ridiculous. There is no need for it.

"People should only be allowed to put out things on the morning of the collection, otherwise children and animals will chuck it all over the place.

"It certainly did not look very nice. It is selfish of a few people whose actions might spoil it for everybody."

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However, fellow resident Stuart Dymond, 36, defended the service.

He said: "They should keep it going or people will go back to dumping things.

"The council should not be silly. Householders put things out when they have the time."

Mike Trim, head of cleansing services at Exeter City Council, said the problem was that rubbish was put out too early and not kept in the specified area.

He said: "We appealed to people not to put out their bulky waste the evening before the collection but they ignored it.

"All the waste was out beforehand and it got spread around a wide area and made an almighty mess because people were scavenging.

"If it is all piled up in the night it becomes a health and safety issue and we were contacted by both the police and the fire service.

"The bulky waste collections are popular but people will not comply with what we are telling them to do so we will have to review how they work."