A TIDWORTH resident has pleaded with councils to sort out litter issues in the town, but said he is yet to receive a response after weeks of waiting.

Fred Galvin, an ex-town councillor who has lived in Tidworth since 1965, has appealed to Tidworth Town Council and Wiltshire Council to take action and clean up the “disgusting problem”.

After waiting two weeks for a reply, Mr Galvin now claims nobody wants to take responsibility to clean up the mess.

He reported the litter on the stretch of The River Bourne between Trinity View and The Royal British Legion several weeks ago.

After receiving no response, he has now decided to take further action after becoming “sick of looking at the eyesore”.

Mr Galvin said: “It is where everyone is dumping their rubbish and no one seems to care about it again. The councils don’t want to know either.

“You are fighting a vicious battle, and nobody seems to care.

“I was there when Tidworth was booming, now it’s a dump.”

Mark Connolly, mayor of Tidworth Town Council, said action is being taken to combat the problem.

He told The Advertiser that the council is working with a community group named Tidworth Angels, which is aiming to

eradicate litter from the town.

He said: “I am very pleased that a huge number of people are taking an interest in looking after the community to put good the dirty deeds of unthoughtful and irresponsible litter bugs.

“The town council will do all it can to support Tidworth Angels in keeping Tidworth tidy.”

The group is organising a fun day in March as part of the Great British Spring Clean initiative, with support from the council, which is allowing the use of the community centre as a base, and providing tea and coffee, litter pickers, hi-vis jackets and gloves.

The council is also paying for a skip for that weekend.

However, Mr Galvin is sceptical whether this event will permanently solve the litter problem in Tidworth. He said: “It’s only going to be a quick fix.

“Once it’s clean, people are only going to litter again.”

He urged people to take responsibility for for their own litter, adding “don’t dump rubbish”.